Senate a sticking point for four-year terms

When the framers of Australia’s Constitution, meeting at the federal convention of 1897-98, committed to a three-year term for the House of Representatives, they followed the constitutional procedure of the majority of Australia’s colonies. They briefly considered a four-year term.

John Forrest, premier of Western Australia (which alone had four-year parliamentary terms), suggested that three years gave insufficient time for MPs to visit their electorates and travel long distances for sittings of the future federal parliament. But this argument was met with the proposition that four years would give MPs too much time for their actions to go without scrutiny.