
Australia's Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull threatened Monday to dissolve parliament and call an early general election in July unless the upper house passed two pieces of legislation on trade unions.
The bills stuck in the Senate resurrect the Australian Building and Construction Commission, an anti-union watchdog scrapped by the former Labor government, and strengthen the regulation of unions.
"If the Senate fails to pass these laws, I will advise the governor-general to dissolve both houses of parliament and issue writs for an election," Turnbull said in a televised address.
"The time for playing games is over," Turnbull said, setting July 2 as the date for a possible early poll.
Turnbull recalled both houses from their seven-week recess to sit on April 18 to try and pass the bills, which were both previously rejected by the upper house.
Bill Shorten, the opposition Labour party leader, criticized the move, telling reporters: "We are not going to play the game that Turnbull wants us to." There was already a system in place to look into union activities, he said.
An election was expected between August and October this year, ahead of the January 2017 deadline.
The possible elections brings closer the prospect of another shake-up in Australia's political leadership.
The country has had five changes of prime minister since 2010 in what former premier Tony Abbott called a "revolving door prime minister
Source : QNA
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