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PM Keeps Options Open On 'Deadlock-Breaking' Double Dissolution

Double Dissolution 'Not A Tactical Measure', PM Says
Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's prime minister, left, smiles as members of the media walk out as he meets U.S. President Barack Obama, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. Turnbull says he plans to encourage U.S. lawmakers to support the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement during his visit to Washington this week. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Bloomberg via Getty Images
Malcolm Turnbull, Australia's prime minister, left, smiles as members of the media walk out as he meets U.S. President Barack Obama, not pictured, in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., on Tuesday, Jan. 19, 2016. Turnbull says he plans to encourage U.S. lawmakers to support the pending Trans-Pacific Partnership free-trade agreement during his visit to Washington this week. Photographer: Andrew Harrer/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has refused to rule out calling a double dissolution election.

Turnbull said on Sunday he wanted the coalition government to go full term, but was keeping the door option to call a snap double dissolution.

He said it could be used to reinstate the construction watchdog and trade union governance reforms, if the senate voted down legislation for a second time.

"My assumption is that the election will be in the usual time, you know, August, September, October," he told ABC television's Insiders on Sunday.

"But it is open to us to go to a double dissolution -- not as a tactical measure. If we go to a double dissolution, it will be an order to use the deadlock-breaking provision of the constitution."

Turnbull has previously described a double dissolution election as a live option if the crossbench again blocks the reintroduction of the Australian Building and Construction Commission (ABCC).

Crossbench senators have said they are not intimidated by the threats.

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