Federal election 2013: Date announcement earliest ever

Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s announcement on 30 January 2013 that the next Federal election will be on Saturday 14 September is the earliest a federal election has ever been announced. This Flagpost details previous early election announcements, reactions to this year's announcement and significant dates in the election timetable.

The previous earliest election date announcement was in 1966 when a House of Representatives only election was announced on Thursday 11 August and held on 26 November. This was a period of three and a half months compared to this year’s period of seven and a half months. The previous earliest announcement for a half-Senate and House of Representatives election was on 25 February 1913 with the election held three months and seven days later on 31 May.

Table: Periods greater than three months between election date announcement and polling date

Election year	Type of election	Election date announced	Polling date	Period between election announcement and polling date*	Election result
2013	Half-Sen, Reps	30 Jan	14 Sep	7 months 16 days
1966	Reps only	11 Aug	26 Nov	3 months 16 days	Govt won
1913	Half-Sen, Reps	25 Feb	31 May	3 months 7 days	Govt lost
1954	Reps only	24 Feb	29 May	3 months 6 days	Govt won
1958	Half-Sen, Reps	20 Aug	22 Nov	3 months 3 days	Govt won
1910	Half-Sen, Reps	12 Jan	13 Apr	3 months 2 days	Govt lost

*Includes both the announcement date and the polling date

The election date is in accord with the 2010 agreement between the Prime Minister and Independent MPs Tony Windsor and Rob Oakeshott for an election to be held in either September or October. They both welcomed the announcement as did the Greens whose leader Senator Christine Milne called for the implementation of fixed three-year terms. Opposition Leader Tony Abbott said the Coalition was ready for the election. The Caretaker Period will commence when the House of Representatives is dissolved.

Parliament will sit for nine weeks with its last sitting day scheduled to be on Thursday 27 June 2013. The Australian Electoral Commission has set out the following election timetable:

Issue of writ:                                                   Monday 12 August 2013
Close of rolls:                                                  8 pm Monday 19 August 2013
Close of candidate nominations:                    12 midday Thursday 22 August 2013
Declaration of candidate nominations:           12 midday Friday 23 August 2013
Polling Day:                                                    Saturday 14 September 2013

Co-authored by Deirdre McKeown