Australia-Oceania
June 3, 2018
Almost two years on from the double dissolution election, its effects are still being felt with an endless game of musical chairs. The Senate has turned into a game of musical chairs – the aim is simply to be the last one sitting. A double-dissolution election, and with it, a lower Senate quota for election, has led to what is politely described as one of the most “interesting” crossbenches in modern political history. Others within the Senate are a little more blunt. “It’s batshit crazy, and just when you think its settled, it gets even more batshit.”
So how did the Senate, the second most powerful legislative upper house in the democratic world, become all about personality over policy? The answer takes us back 754 days ago, when Malcolm Turnbull asked the governor general for a double dissolution election, after the Senate twice rejected the government’s bill to restore the construction watchdog. The chairs were set and the music began playing, and with every seat in the parliament up for grabs, the vote quota to get to the upper house was lowered. Instead of 14.3% of the vote, senators needed just 7.7%.
The Coalition took 30, Labor won 26 and the Greens claimed nine. The final 11 were filled by one of the more eclectic mix of micro-parties and independents the Senate had seen in some time. Jacqui Lambie was back, this time under her own banner, the Jacqui Lambie Network. She was joined by Derryn Hinch, who also ran under an eponymous party, Hinch’s Justice Party. Bob Day returned for Family First, while David Leyonhjelm continued flying the flag for the Liberal Democrats. But the king and queen of Australia’s personality politics movement captured the most attention.
Nick Xenophon entered with two more senators under the Nick Xenophon Team pennant and Pauline Hanson stormed back into Canberra with three others to share the Pauline Hanson’s One Nation balance of power. With Labor and the Greens voting against the government more often than not, the Coalition needed to woo nine of the 11 crossbenchers in order to pass legislation. Relationships were established, or in the case of Hanson, mended. The negotiations began, with Mathias Cormann, first as deputy government leader in the Senate, and then later, with George Brandis’s departure, leader, seemingly taking on the bulk of responsibility. Then, in mid-October 2016, just two months after the 45th parliament began, Day announced his intention to resign, with the government alerted to a potential constitutional conflict with his election. He formally stood down on 1 November.
By the time the high court ordered the special vote recount to find his replacement, Family First no longer existed, and Lucy Gichuhi entered the Senate as an independent. Around the time Day was resigning from the Senate, Rob Culleton’s eligibility to sit in parliament was thrown into question, because of a previous conviction that remained on his record at the time of his election. By December, Culleton had quit One Nation to sit as an independent. By early February 2017, the high court ruled he was out and his brother-in-law, Peter Georgiou, next on the Western Australian One Nation Senate ticket, was in. Just a week after Culleton’s booting, Cory Bernardi, elected on the South Australian Liberals ticket, stuck the boot into the party he’d sat with for the past decade, and announced he was leaving to form the Australian Conservatives. His party swallowed what was left of Family First, but he couldn’t convince Gichuhi to join.
All was quiet in the upper house, until July that same year, when a West Australian lawyer, looking at Hinch’s eligibility, instead found Greens senator Scott Ludlam was a dual citizen and, under the constitution, ineligible to sit in parliament. Ludlam quit, and a few days later, to much mirth from other parties, who made hay with Oscar Wilde’s “to lose one” sunshine, Larissa Waters quit for the same reason. Suddenly, an obscure section of the constitution, which had to be explained even to many MPs, became all Canberra could talk about. For the major parties, it would eventually mean the loss and replacement of Fiona Nash, Stephen Parry and Katy Gallagher from the Senate. For the crossbench, it sparked almost complete upheaval. Xenophon was caught, and released from the section 44 net, but quit the Senate anyway, for what would end up becoming an ill-fated attempt to play powerbroker in the South Australian parliament. He was replaced by his senior adviser Rex Patrick.
Hanson’s annointed favourite, Malcolm Roberts, wasn’t so lucky and found himself without a seat, despite “choosing to believe” he was never a dual citizen. He would be replaced by next-in-line Fraser Anning, who, having taken umbrage at the pressure Hanson had placed on him to quit so Roberts could replace himself, decided instead to quit the party, leaving One Nation with three of its four original seats. Shortly after Roberts’ departure, Lambie announced she too was a dual citizen and left the Senate on 14 November last year.
She would ultimately be replaced by Steve Martin, a Tasmanian mayor who sat as number two on her Senate ticket. That put an end to the idea Lambie could potentially replace herself in the upper house. Martin was dumped from the party in February and took his seat as an independent. Last week he announced he was joining the Nationals, becoming the second independent senator elected under a micro-party banner to join the Coalition – Gichuhi became a Liberal in February. Also in November, NXT senator Skye Kakoschke-Moore was forced to leave the Senate after finding she too, was a dual citizen.
Her spot was taken by Tim Storer, who survived a challenge to his taking up the seat, given he had quit the Nick Xenophon Team in October last year after Xenophon chose Patrick to sit in the Senate over Storer, who had been next in line on the ticket. That reduced NXT to just two senators, from its three original seats. And they now sit as the Centre Alliance after a party name change. Martin’s switch to the Nationals changed nothing except the government now needs eight of the 10 remaining crossbenchers and the music appeared to finally stop. The section 44 spotlight had turned to Labor. After nearly 20% of the original Senate had been replaced, either forcibly or through personal resignation, all finally seemed quiet in the upper house.
Cormann, aged but still standing, began perusing this new crossbench he had to wrangle. But One Nation had another move. On Thursday morning, Brian Burston announced he would not heed the Hanson dictate to back out of the deal she had struck with Cormann over the government’s company tax legislation and would vote with the Coalition. By Thursday evening, Hanson had heard Burston was looking to jump to another party and was crying on Sky News.
By Friday afternoon, Burston learned Hanson had lost all faith in him and had ordered him to resign from the party. The letter expelling him as a registered officer in the party and demanding he give up his Senate seat was read out to Burston during a live radio interview. He refused, telling Hanson, through his interview, she would have to sack him and that under no circumstances would be give up his Senate seat. By Friday night, that decision was still pending, but expected imminently. Hanson came to parliament with three other senators, and somehow managed to lose four. And somewhere, Cormann waits, praying for the music to finally stop.
The Guardian
