Government and opposition are pushing for change to bring Queensland in line with every other state except Tasmania

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

A campaign will soon kick off to convince Queenslanders to allow the state’s politicians to sit for an extra year between elections.

Queensland currently has variable three-year terms, meaning the government of the day is able to set the election date to their advantage.

Both the government and opposition are pushing for fixed four-year parliamentary terms to bring Queensland in line with every other state except Tasmania, which has four-year non-fixed terms.

The Queensland’s premier, Annastacia Palaszczuk, on Friday signed the writ for a referendum on the changes, which will be held alongside local government elections on 19 March.

Palaszczuk said the Electoral Commission of Queensland will start an awareness campaign from Saturday and Governor Paul de Jersey will officially issue the writ on Monday.

The premier said both major parties supported the change and she had been in contact with the opposition leader, Lawrence Springborg, to set up a campaign for the “yes” vote.

“We believe that four-year fixed terms will bring certainty, it will save taxpayers money on the number of elections,” Palaszczuk said.

Katter’s Australian party will be in charge of the “no” campaign, she said.

The changes, if passed, will come into effect after the next election in early 2018 and will mean voters go to the polls in the last weekend of October every four years.