Australia should hold a referendum in 2019 and adopt fixed four-year terms for the federal Parliament, Liberal MP David Coleman says.
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In an opinion piece published in Fairfax Media on Thursday, Mr Coleman argues that a longer term with a fixed election date would give government more time to implement complex policy reforms, end the uncertainty around election timing that begins every two-and-a-half years or so and that it would be more transparent.
Under Mr Coleman's proposal, while lower house MPs would be elected for up to four-year terms, senators' terms would be stretched from six to eight years.
This is similar to the situation in the New South Wales Parliament but different to the Victorian Parliament, where all members of the lower and upper house serve four-year terms.
And the idea could well attract bipartisan support, as federal Labor has already backed the shift to four years in its national policy platform.
"If we were to devise a system today from scratch, we would not say: 'Let's have an election roughly every two-and-a-half years, at an unknown date, to be determined at the sole discretion of the Prime Minister of the day'.That's how our system currently works. We should change it," Mr Coleman writes.
"Moving to a fixed four-term parliament would bring substantial benefits to the nation."
Pre-empting critics of the proposal who may ask "what happens if something goes very wrong during the four year period?", Mr Coleman said that "if there is a successful no-confidence motion in the government in the House of Representatives, then the Governor-General may call an election. That would be the only circumstance in which a fixed four-year term did not apply".
The end to uncertainty around election timing would also stop the hit to business investment and consumer confidence that can take place in the lead-up to an election.
And, indeed, in May the Australian Institute of Company Directors chief executive John Brogden called for fixed four-year terms to allow federal governments "the ability to make long-term decisions in the best interests of our nation".
The federal government is already working towards holding a non-binding plebiscite that would open the way to the legalisation of same-sex marriage, and a separate referendum that would facilitate the constitutional recognition of Indigenous Australians.
Because of this, Mr Coleman said that any vote to change Parliament's terms from three years to four should take place at the next election, which is due in 2019.
"This issue is one of the key pieces of unfinished business in our democracy. If we make the change to fixed four-year terms, we will be passing on a system that is stronger than we found it," he writes.
A 1988 referendum proposed shifting to four-year terms for the lower and upper houses of the federal Parliament, but it was soundly defeated as the opposition of the day, led by John Howard, fought the Hawke government's proposed change.
Referendums rarely succeed in Australia as they require majority support from voters in a majority of states.
Since then, the Coalition's position has appeared to soften. In March, Finance Minister Mathias Cormann suggested such a change would be worthwhile, though difficult to implement.
And North Sydney MP Trent Zimmerman said in his maiden speech in March that four-year terms should be adopted.
Constitutional law professor George Williams told Fairfax Media their were sound reasons to shift to four-year terms.
"The political cycle does not support large structural reforms but we do them," he said.
"Given this has worked in several states, why can't we do it nationally".
However, he cautioned there should be "a slightly broader range of circumstances" that would allow an early election to be called than proposed by Mr Coleman.
