A member of the Turnbull government has prepared a private members bill to introduce fixed, four-year terms to mend what he says is the one "glaring" structural weakness in our political system.
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Liberal MP David Coleman argues the shift to four-year terms is necessary to give governments and citizens greater certainty. And he says "governments would get more done".
" A fixed, four-year term reduces the impact of short-term political drama, and allows for a more strategic approach to decision-making," he says.
" Economic activity would increase. Both businesses and consumers tend to hold off on investment during election periods - and the phony war that precedes them," and in addition, "consistency with the states would be achieved. Every state except Tasmania now has fixed four-year terms."
Australia's current, non-fixed, three-year terms, with the timing of the election at the discretion of the prime minister, are out-of-step with the rest of the world and on average, elections are held every two-and-a-half years.
Mr Coleman, a rising star on the government backbench and formerly a high-flying media executive, has consulted widely on the bill with constitutional law experts including George Williams and Anne Twomey, senior Coalition colleagues and some in the ALP.
He argues, in an opinion piece published in Fairfax Media on Tuesday to coincide with the release of the draft laws, that a referendum on the proposal should be held at the next election, due in 2019.
The first four-year, fixed-term parliament would sit in the following term, which is due to begin in around 2022.
He proposes minimalist changes that would see lower house MPs have four-year terms and senators eight-year terms. This is the same model adopted by the NSW Parliament, but different to Victoria, where both houses are elected for four years.
Crucially, there are three "escape" clauses that could still allow for an early election under certain circumstances - via a double dissolution, a successful motion of no confidence, or a "catch-all" provision that would still allow the Governor-General to act in accordance with constitutional conventions in dissolving parliament.
The proposed change does have widespread support across Labor and the Coalition. Opposition Leader Bill Shorten has argued for the change - as did former PM Kevin Rudd - and it is an objective in Labor's national platform.
Cabinet ministers Mathias Cormann and Peter Dutton have also indicated they could back a shift to four-year terms, while new Coalition MPs Andrew Gee and Trent Zimmerman backed the proposal in their maiden speeches.
Many business leaders, too, are broadly supportive of the shift - as Mr Coleman notes - because of the increased certainty of fixed terms, which allow for longer-term planning of investment decisions. For governments, too, it would allow potentially difficult budgetary decisions to be taken early in a term.
However, as a private members bill, it is by no means certain the Turnbull government will allow debate or a vote on Mr Coleman's bill, and a subsequent referendum at the next election could be viewed as a distraction. Just 15 private members bills have become law since federation.
In addition, if the bill is passed and a referendum is held, hurdles remain. To successfully implement the change, a majority of people in a majority of states would have to to vote "yes" in a referendum on the issue; to date, only eight of 44 referendums have succeeded in Australian history.
