A stimulating time for the cross-benches

It seems like a long time ago, but it is actually only six months that the new Senate convened in parliament House for the first time. It was a significantly different Senate in two ways. Firstly, it was the first since 1977 without a single Australian Democrat Senator on the cross-benches.  Secondly, it shifted the Senate numbers from the uncommon situation of a Coalition majority which had prevailed for the previous three years to a balance of power equation which required the new Labor government to get the support of an eclectic combination of five Greens plus the Family First Senator and the new No Pokies Independent Nick Xenophon in order to pass any legislation or motion which the Coalition opposed.

The record of the various cross-bench players over the first six months of this new Senate, and the public comments and actions to date, have begun to provide a good idea of their attitudes and capabilities.  But this week looks likely to provide the first really significant test of Senators in the balance of power role.  There were a few Senate balance of power skirmishes last year over some of the measures in Labor’s first Budget, such as the luxury car tax. Many of the measures got through in some form after a bit of toing and froing, and there was no major measure blocked (although the so-called alcopops tax hike is still to be determined).

Thus far, the Greens have shown an ability to handle their new Senate balance of power role in a mature and balanced way, confounding the predictions of those who suggested their previous uncompromising approach would make them unsuited for this role and showing promising signs of filling the gap left by the Democrats – although having only 5 Senators still makes it hard for them to cover all the issues as thoroughly as could be desired.

Indications thus far is that Nick Xenophon is earning the respect of all sides for being reasonably straight in the way he deals with issues, and giving solid thought to the issues he has to make pivotal decisions on.

Unfortunately, the same can’t be said for Family First Senator, Steve Fielding. He is not a new quantity, having already been in the Senate for three years and having occasionally played a balance of power role on key issues such as enabling the abolition of any form of compulsory student services fee at universities and removing even more of the restrictions on Australia’s media ownership laws.  The manner in which he handled these issues left plenty of people perplexed at the time, and nothing in the way he has approach balance of power issues in the last six months has served to change opinions.

An indication of the starkly differing attitudes of most of the Senate players towards the two independents is reflected in this column from Glenn Milne. However, despite this and other indications around that Nick Xenophon is leaning towards the Coalition’s option of tax cuts rather than one-off handouts, I’d have to say that I’d be very surprised if the government accepted a major change like this.  And I’d be even more surprised if, by the end of this week, the government doesn’t get its package through the Senate in one form or another. I agree with Michelle Grattan that Nick Xenophon would “have to be crazy brave, or just crazy, to block the $42 billion” package.