The results of the Western Australian senatorial election appear to be finalised at long last, and the makeup of the federal senate following last years general election is starting to take shape. The Liberal party has taken out three seats, as expected, with the remaining three in the western state split between Labor, the Greens, and Palmer United.
Following a revote held in WA a few weeks ago, Liberal candidates David Johnston, Michaelia Cash and Linda Reynolds will all take seats on the blue side of the room, whilst Joe Bullock will represent Labor, Scott Ludlam (aka DJ S-Ludz) fills the Greens seat, and newly elected Palmer United Party member Zhenya Wang (*cough*) rounds out the six seats.
With the Western Australian contingent now locked in, the makeup of the new senate that will come into effect from July is clear. The Coalition loses one seat from their current block, and heads into the new senate with 33, whilst the ALP takes a big hit, losing 6 seats to move into July with 25. The Greens gain a seat, moving their stake up to 10.
But it’s the motley crew of crossbenchers that will ultimately hold the balance of power in the new look Upper House, headed up by Crazy Clive Palmer and his rag-tag bunch of political Kool Aid drinkers known as the Palmer United Party, who gained a total of 3 seats through the senatorial elections.
Tenured senator, and generally well-balanced human being Nick Xenophon holds his seat in an array of benches that he has to share with people elected on tickets such as Family First, the diametrically opposed, yet strangely similar Democratic Labour Party and Liberal Democratic Party (which, we assume, is kind of a People’s Front of Judea/Judean People’s Front-type situation) and the much vaunted Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party, who we still hope introduces the “Sick Burnouts For All” bill of 2015, along with proposing the Bathurst 1000 be declared a national holiday.
What this ultimately means is that, from July, Government life becomes a little trickier, due to the fickle nature of PUP’s politics, and the disparate range of political agendas in the crossbench.
It’s not a huge change overall for the legislative day-to-day operations of the Abbott Government. It just means that they’ll have to make a concerned, dedicated effort to keep fucking everything up.
Photo: Bradley Kanaris via Getty Images.
