early election call explained, page-8

having read a report that hairy posted

if a by-election was required in the next few weeks it could be argued by labor that we should wait 7 months for the general election. However the longest period between a by- election and general election was 3 months way back in the 1940s. Many would argue that 7 months is a very long time for an electorate to endure without a representative.
The speaker of the house has to make a decision based on the costs of two elections in a short period of time and the closer we get to Sept 14th the stronger the case becomes.