AKIPRESS.COM - Malcolm Turnbull has told government MPs to prepare for an election within six months despite a clear sign of nerves on the Coalition backbench at the prospect of a double dissolution election.

The Prime Minister used the regular meeting of the government ranks to insist on the need for tougher oversight of unions and employers in the building industry, telling colleagues that the issue was so important it could be used to trigger an early election.

Mr Turnbull told the meeting he was considering a double-dissolution as a “live option”.

“We can reasonably expect an election to be at the normal time in the August to October period, but that is not set in stone,” he said, according to a party room spokesman, The Australian reports.

Deputy Prime Minister Warren Truss urged MPs to focus on the election “in everything we do from now on”.

“You don’t fatten the pig on market day,” the Nationals leader said, echoing former leader John Howard.

In a warning to the leader, Queensland Liberal National Party Senator Ian Macdonald stood during the meeting to caution against a double dissolution election on the grounds that it would help minor parties and independents.

Senator Macdonald declared that the crossbenchers would “love” a double dissolution election and that the government had to proceed with Senate voting reform before it attempted an early poll.

Mr Turnbull countered that view, however, by telling the meeting that the crossbenchers did not want a double dissolution.

The Prime Minister’s remarks suggest he is holding out hope that the independents and micro-party members of the upper house would pass the goverment bill to restore the Australian Building and Construction Commission rather than reject it and allow it to become a double dissolution trigger.

By specifying an election within about six months, Mr Turnbull appeared to be preparing MPs to face voters at an early poll or a standard poll as early as August.