Dom Perrottet on fixed four-year federal terms

Alister Henskens: In your idea, it's to have the federal election on four-year cycles, and then 2 years within that federal cycle, you would have all the state governments having a state election for four years, so that you get a degree of continuity between the states and the federal government. Do you think we could ever do that? It sounds like a good idea to me.

Dominic Perrottet: Well, how hard could it be? I mean, I think it makes a lot of sense to do it. I accept the point you don't want them all on the same day because well, the same day as the federal election because you don't want states to get caught up in the wash, right?

So, having it at the midpoint, and also giving the flexibility for the states and territories to go within 6 months of that midpoint ensures greater continuity on those bodies to drive reform. And I think it wouldn't be too hard for the federal government to say, "Well, from this date, we're going to go to four-year fixed terms, and here's the federal election date." And then ultimately, the states and territories just align. I know that means you might have to align over a cycle, a four-year cycle, so you just shift the date out.

So, obviously, for you know, in New South Wales, for example, you might have a longer term in that last instance, or a shorter term to kind of align the dates up. But it can't be that difficult. And I think there's a lot of benefit for our country and our people in doing it. And you will get a much greater connection between senior ministers, or the treasurers particularly, and the premiers across the country working together over a longer period of time, rather than having as you would have experienced yourself, ministers signing...