section_path: Election date/Constitutional and legal provisions
section_name: Constitutional and legal provisions
paragraph_text: Constitutional and legal provisions
  
  The constitutional and legal provisions which impact on the choice of election dates include:
  
  The election of senators must take place within one year before the terms expire for half-Senate elections, so that the writs for a half-Senate election could not be issued earlier than 1 July 2024. Since campaigns are for a minimum of 33 days, the earliest possible date for a simultaneous House/half-Senate election was Saturday, 3 August 2024. The latest that a half-Senate election could be held must allow time for the votes to be counted and the writs to be returned before the newly elected senators take office on 1 July 2025. The previous election's writs were returned on 24 June 2022, 34 days after the 2022 federal election. Using this time frame, the last possible date for a half-Senate election to take place was Saturday 17 May 2025.
  
  A double dissolution (a deadlock-breaking provision to dissolve both houses of parliament) cannot be called within six months before the date of the expiry of the House of Representatives. That means that any double dissolution of the 47th Parliament would have had to be granted by 24 January 2025. Allowing for the same stages indicated above, the last possible date for a double dissolution election would have been 29 March 2025. This can only occur if a bill that passes the House of Representatives is rejected by the Senate twice, at least three months apart.