Turnbull's election options

HOW TURNBULL COULD ROLL THE DICE

DOUBLE-DISSOLUTION

* Dissolves both houses of parliament by May 11 for a House of Representatives and full Senate election on July 2.

* Unlike a normal election, all 76 Senate seats are up for grabs.

* Voters would elect 150 lower house MPs; 12 senators from each state, and two each from the ACT and Northern Territory.

* The quota of votes needed to win a seat in the Senate is halved to 7 per cent.

* The coalition will need 46 per cent of the vote in each state to elect six senators. That's only likely in Western Australia.

* Labor is likely to win 4-5 seats in most states, except South Australia where Nick Xenophon and his team could win up to three seats.

* The Greens could lose a senator in SA and Queensland, reducing their number to eight.

NO DOUBLE-D

* House of Reps and half-Senate election between August 13 and mid-January 2017.

TO WIN GOVERNMENT

* Labor needs to gain 21 seats on a uniform swing of 4.3 per cent to win government from the coalition.

* The coalition can afford to lose 14 seats on a swing of 3 per cent.