When is the next federal election?

Any Saturday from August 2027 to May 2028

The last federal election was held on 3 May 2025. The next one can fall on any Saturday from 7 August 2027 to 20 May 2028, with the House of Representatives and half the Senate elected together, as is usual.

The House can be dissolved sooner, at any time. But an election before 7 August 2027 could not include the Senate, so senators would need an election of their own. If the House and Senate elections were split, the House could run until 23 September 2028.

Why there is no set date

The Constitution sets a maximum, not a date. Section 28 says the House of Representatives “shall continue for three years from the first meeting of the House, and no longer, but may be sooner dissolved by the Governor-General.” By convention, the Governor-General acts on the Prime Minister’s advice. So the Prime Minister decides when Australians vote.

This House first sat on 22 July 2025, so it expires on 21 July 2028. Most Houses never get that far. Since Federation the average term has been two years and eight months, and a full three-year term has been reached fewer than ten times.

The Senate sets the real deadline

State senators serve fixed six-year terms, and half of them finish on 30 June 2028. Their replacements must be elected within the year before, so the writs can be issued no earlier than 1 July 2027. With the minimum campaign, the first Saturday that allows is 7 August 2027.

At the other end, the votes must be counted and the writs returned before the new senators start on 1 July 2028. Allowing the Electoral Commission five weeks for that puts the last practical polling day at 20 May 2028.

The dates in full

Source: Parliamentary Library, “When is the next federal election?”, August 2025. Each date is a Saturday, the only day federal elections can be held. Checked October 2026.

It has been done before

In January 2013, Prime Minister Julia Gillard named the election date with eight months’ notice. She lost the Labor leadership later that year, and the election was held a week before her date, under Kevin Rudd. No Prime Minister has given advance notice since.

How others do it

• The states. Every state and territory has four-year terms, and all except Tasmania vote on a fixed date. Tasmania held three elections in less than five years (2021, 2024 and 2025).
• New Zealand. No fixed term, but since 2011 every Prime Minister has announced the date at the start of election year, about nine months ahead. Christopher Luxon named 7 November 2026 in January.
• Canada. A fixed-date law since 2007. A year later Stephen Harper called an early election anyway, and a Federal Court found he could. Elections fell on the fixed date in 2015 and 2019, and came early in 2021 and 2025.
• The United Kingdom. Its 2011 Fixed-term Parliaments Act set the bar for an early election so high that Parliament struggled to end a genuine deadlock, while a government could still go around it with an ordinary bill. It was repealed in 2022.

A fixed date can still allow an early election when it is genuinely needed. The mainland states allow one if the government loses a no-confidence vote or cannot pass a budget.

A fixed date needs only a law

A longer term needs a referendum. A fixed election date does not: Parliament can set one with ordinary legislation. Until it does, the parties could agree that every election is announced at least six months ahead.

With a fixed date working, a referendum on four-year terms would ask Australians to keep something that already works. In a 2026 JWS Research poll, 61 per cent preferred a fixed election date and 22 per cent the current system.