Double dissolution

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If the House of Representatives passes any proposed law, and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the House of Representatives will not agree, and if after an interval of three months the House of Representatives, in the same or the next session, again passes the proposed law with or without any amendments which have been made, suggested, or agreed to by the Senate, and the Senate rejects or fails to pass it, or passes it with amendments to which the House of Representatives will not agree, the Governor-General may dissolve the Senate and the House of Representatives simultaneously. But such dissolution shall not take place within six months before the date of the expiry of the House of Representatives by effluxion of time.

Date of double dissolution	Date of election	Governor-General	Prime Minister	Leader of the Opposition	Outcome
30 July 1914	5 September 1914	Sir Ronald Munro-Ferguson Ronald Munro-Ferguson, 1st Viscount Novar Ronald Craufurd Munro Ferguson, 1st Viscount Novar Order of the Thistle Order of St Michael and St George Privy Council of the United Kingdom , sixth Governor-General of Australia, was probably the most politically influential holder of this post....	Joseph Cook Joseph Cook Sir Joseph Cook, Order of St Michael and St George was an Australian politician and sixth Prime Minister of Australia....	Andrew Fisher Andrew Fisher Andrew Fisher was an Australian politician who served as Prime Minister of Australia on three separate occasions. Fisher's 1910-13 ministry completed a vast legislative programme which made him, along with Protectionist Party Alfred Deakin, the founder of the statutory structure of the new nation....	The Cook Commonwealth Liberal Party Commonwealth Liberal Party The Commonwealth Liberal Party was a political movement active in Australia from 1909 to 1911, shortly after federation.In 1909 Alfred Deakin, the leader of the Protectionist Party merged with the Anti-Socialist Party of Joseph Cook to form the CLP on a shared platform of opposing the Australian Labor Party....  government was defeated by Andrew Fisher's Australian Labor Party Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an List of political parties in Australia.Known as the Australian Labor Party#Etymology for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the Australian federal election, 2007.... .
19 March 1951	28 April 1951	Sir William McKell William McKell Sir William John McKell Order of St Michael and St George Venerable Order of St John , Australian politician, was Premiers of New South Wales from 1941 to 1947, and was the twelfth Governor-General of Australia....	Robert Menzies Robert Menzies Sir Robert Gordon Menzies, Order of the Thistle, Order of Australia, Order of the Companions of Honour, Queen's Counsel , Australian politician, was the twelfth Prime Minister of Australia....	Ben Chifley Ben Chifley Joseph Benedict Chifley , Australian politician and 16th Prime Minister of Australia, was one of Australia's most influential Prime Ministers. Among his government's accomplishments were the post-war immigration scheme under Arthur Calwell, the establishment of Australian citizenship in 1949, the Snowy Mountains Scheme, the national airline T...	The Menzies Liberal Liberal Party of Australia The Liberal Party of Australia is an List of political parties in Australia.Founded a year after the Australian federal election, 1943 to replace the United Australia Party, the centre-right Liberal Party competes with the centre-left Australian Labor Party for political office.... -Country Party National Party of Australia The National Party of Australia is an List of political parties in Australia.Traditionally representing rural voters, it was originally called the Country Party, but adopted the name National Country Party in 1975 and changed to its present name in 1982....  coalition government was opposed by Chifley's Labor Party, but was returned with a majority in both houses.
11 April 1974	18 May 1974	Sir Paul Hasluck Paul Hasluck Sir Paul Meernaa Caedwalla Hasluck Order of the Garter Order of St Michael and St George Royal Victorian Order Venerable Order of St John was an Australian historian, poet, public servant and politician, and 17th Governor-General of Australia....	Gough Whitlam Gough Whitlam 'Edward Gough Whitlam', Order of Australia, Queens Counsel , known as 'Gough Whitlam' , is an Australian former politician and 21st Prime Minister of Australia....	Billy Snedden Billy Snedden Sir Billy Mackie Snedden Order of St Michael and St George Queen's Counsel was an Australian politician representing the Liberal Party of Australia....	The Whitlam Labor Australian Labor Party The Australian Labor Party is an List of political parties in Australia.Known as the Australian Labor Party#Etymology for short, the party is the current governing party of Australia, since the Australian federal election, 2007....  government was returned, but still without a majority in the Senate. The bills were reintroduced and again rejected by the coalition-controlled Senate. Sir Paul Hasluck's term ended on 11 July and the new Governor-General Sir John Kerr approved Whitlam's request for a joint sitting. This was held on 6-7 August 1974, and it passed all the bills.
11 November 1975	13 December 1975	Sir John Kerr	Malcolm Fraser Malcolm Fraser John Malcolm Fraser, Order of Australia, Order of the Companions of Honour is an Australian Liberal Party of Australia politician who was the 22nd Prime Minister of Australia....  (caretaker)	Gough Whitlam	Fraser, who, as Leader of the Liberal-Country coalition Opposition, had opposed the bills, had been appointed caretaker Prime Minister in extraordinary circumstances following Kerr's dismissal of the Whitlam government. The Fraser minority government immediately lost a no-confidence motion in the lower house; however, on Fraser's advice, Kerr dissolved the Parliament before the Speaker Speaker of the Australian House of Representatives The Speaker of the House of Representatives is the presiding officer of the House of Representatives, the lower house of the Parliament of Australia....  Gordon Scholes Gordon Scholes Gordon Glen Denton Scholes Order of Australia is an Australian former politician.Scholes was born in Melbourne and was a councillor of the City of Geelong from 1965 to 1967....  had an opportunity to advise Kerr to invite Whitlam to form a government again. Hence, Fraser remained the caretaker Prime Minister during the election campaign. On 13 December the Fraser government was elected in its own right.
3 February 1983	5 March 1983	Sir Ninian Stephen Ninian Stephen Sir Ninian Martin Stephen, Order of the Garter, Order of Australia, Order of St Michael and St George, Royal Victorian Order, Order of the British Empire, Queen's Counsel was the 20th Governor-General of Australia and a Justice in the High Court of Australia....	Malcolm Fraser	Bob Hawke Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke, Order of Australia was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....	The Fraser coalition government was defeated by the Labor opposition led by Bob Hawke. When Fraser called the election, he expected he would be facing Bill Hayden Bill Hayden William George Hayden, Order of Australia was the 21st Governor-General of Australia. Prior to this, he represented the Australian Labor Party in parliament; he was a minister in the government of Gough Whitlam, and later became Leader of the Opposition, narrowly losing the Australian federal election, 1980 to the Malcolm Fraser-led Liberal...  as the alternative prime minister. But unbeknown to Fraser, Labor had changed leadership from Hayden to Hawke earlier that same morning.
5 June 1987	11 July 1987	Sir Ninian Stephen	Bob Hawke Bob Hawke Robert James Lee Hawke, Order of Australia was the 23rd Prime Minister of Australia and longest serving Australian Labor Party Prime Minister....	John Howard John Howard John Winston Howard, Order of Australia was the 25th Prime Minister of Australia from 11 March 1996 to 3 December 2007. He is the second-longest serving Australian Prime Minister after Robert Menzies....	The Hawke government was returned, but still without a Senate majority. The Australia Card Australia Card The Australia Card was a controversial proposal for a national identity document for Australian citizens and resident foreigners. The proposal was made in 1985, and abandoned in 1987....  bill was reintroduced in September and a vote in the Senate was planned for 7 October. During that period, a retired former Deputy Secretary of the Attorney-General's Department, Ewart Smith (1920-1991), pointed out in letters to newspapers that the Australia Card bill was unworkable because the implementation date was not part of the legislation, and would have to be a matter of a separate regulation. Even if the bill had been passed - whether by the usual process or in a joint sitting - and given Royal Assent, the opposition parties could still have combined to disallow the regulation, thus preventing the act from ever being implemented. John Stone John Stone (Australian politician) John Owen Stone is a former Australia politician. He served as Secretary to the Department of the Treasury between between 1979 and 1984,and as a Senator for Queensland representing the National Party of Australia in the Australian Senate from 1987 to 1990.... , a former Secretary to the Treasury who had been elected in July as a National Party senator from Queensland, contacted Smith, confirmed the detail, and brought this information to the attention of his party. The coalition embarrassed the Hawke government by bringing the matter to light during Question Time on 23 September. After acknowledging that, even if passed, it was likely the bill could not be implemented, Hawke decided to abandon the Australia Card bill. Ewart Smith later wrote a book about the affair, from his perspective, titled The Australia Card: The Story of its Defeat (Melbourne, Sun Books 1989).