With just six double-dissolution elections in Australia's history, what's the next step after the latest vote?
Australia has just had a double-dissolution election. The election was called after two industrial relations bills twice failed to pass the Senate. This triggered the deadlock provisions in the Constitution.
Section 57 of the Constitution sets out what happens in the event of a disagreement between the House of Representatives and the Senate, when a bill fails to pass the Senate twice.
In this situation, the governor-general (with the prime ministers advice) can trigger a double-dissolution election, where both the Senate and the House of Representatives are simultaneously dissolved. In a normal election, only half of the Senate is dissolved.
Australias founders envisaged there would be disagreements between the houses of parliament. The double-dissolution election procedure was intended to break any deadlocks by giving the people a say when our elected representatives in parliament cannot agree on important policy matters.
Following the election, Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has committed to try to pass the bills.
