Fixing federal election terms would be a good first step

Television debates between leaders have become common, and the force of precedent is now such that it would be politically impossible for a federal political leader to avoid having at least one televised debate.  (In New South Wales Bob Carr managed to dodge one in the last election on the grounds that the Liberal Government had refused to debate him.  It is unlikely that he will be able to get away with this next time.)  But it is unlikely – given the differing roles of minor parties and the changing judgements of newsworthiness by the news media - that there will ever be binding codified rules about the number or format of debates.  Leaders will still take expedient stances based upon their prospects within the outer bounds of political possibility. 

However there are some aspects of election campaigning where regulation is possible and desirable. The battle for democracy is never finally won, but must be constantly renewed as new forces erode democratic processes. The next frontier in the struggle for democracy is to limit the abuse of incumbency for partisan advantage. In the future, making policy on rules of election campaigning may become almost as important to protecting democracy as those relating to electoral systems. Controls on government advertising and in particular their enforcement by an independent agency and more effective rules about the disclosure of political donations are desirable but not likely in the near future. 

The simplest to achieve is to introduce rules about setting the election date, and taking it out of the hands of the Prime Minister. Only the United States operates with a system of fixed election dates. It is not possible for a parliamentary system, where the continuation of the government depends upon maintaining the confidence of parliament, to have such a completely fixed system. However it is possible – as indeed has been done in New South Wales since the early 1990s, thanks to the Independents then having the balance of power – to fix the election date within limiting conditions (such as the government losing a vote of confidence or seeking a double dissolution).

If the Prime Minister sets the 2004 election date for say the third Saturday in October, then it should be presumed that unless specified political conditions intervene, that the next election will be on that Saturday in 2007.