When an election is called in Australia the government immediately goes into caretaker mode.

When in caretaker mode, the government of the day has to avoid making major policy decisions or undertakings that would commit the incoming government.

There are no specific guidelines for what constitutes a “major” decision, but apart from policy and resource considerations, one of the issues that have to be considered is whether the decision is a matter of contention between the government and the opposition.

So there are a few scenarios that could apply to the already uncertain future of State Migration Plans.

• If signing off on SMPs is considered a major undertaking, or one that is a matter of contention between the govt and opposition, they won’t be able to be signed off until after the election. Under those circumstances:
• If the current government retains power, it will to a large extent be business as usual after the election and their sign-off will retain whatever priority Evans’ advisers have allocated to it.
• If the Opposition wins, there will be a settling in period where the new Ministers will need to be briefed by their staff on issues across their entire portfolio. That will cause a delay of at least a few weeks in the signing off process, even if the Opposition is in favour of retaining SMPs. If the Opposition decides not to proceed with SMPs, there will be further delays while it implements its own policy position on state sponsorship.
• On the other hand, if signing off on SMPs is considered to be merely routine business of government, any signature-ready SMPs could be signed off by Evans any time up to the election

As there are no firm rules about what constitutes a major policy decision or undertaking, it is unfortunately a case of having to wait and see how the govt decides to proceed.