20 September 2019
Federal Parliament seems to lack something nowadays. In fact, I wonder if that something has been lacking for almost two years. A Federal election just four months ago might be evidence of this.
What happened almost two years ago? Well, I refer to when the popular Nick Xenophon resigned from the Senate, for what was to be an unsuccessful attempt to run for State Parliament in South Australia. He’d long been one of the most popular crossbench politicians around, certainly in South Australia. Such was his popularity that his party won large proportions of the vote at election time, even winning more votes than the Labor Party in one election.
At the last Federal election that he contested, his vote was strong enough to earn three Senate seats for his party in South Australia. He was clearly the politician to whom South Australians would turn if they couldn’t abide the major parties, from either the left or right of the political spectrum.
But without him, his party’s vote went into freefall. At this year’s election, the party’s vote fell to a fraction of what it’d been with him around. Now two men, Rex Patrick and Stirling Griff, sit in the Senate as a result of him, but I believe that neither will survive the next election – bearing in mind that neither faced the voters at this year’s election because the party’s vote was previously strong enough to have this year’s election off.
Basically, Patrick and Griff are seemingly nothing by themselves. For sure, they and other crossbenchers hold the balance of power in the Senate, meaning that the Liberal-National Coalition Government often needs their support to get laws passed. But I doubt that they look like they can attract enough support among voters in South Australia to hold their seats.
Beyond Patrick and Griff, it seems as if Xenophon’s departure almost two years ago deprived Parliament of someone capable of winning over voters from left and right alike. Almost nobody fitting that description won a seat in the Senate at least, which was disappointing. But I say “almost” because there was at least one exception in this regard – a feisty Tasmanian named Jacqui Lambie.
While the Coalition and Labor together won most of the Senate seats contested at this year’s election, the remaining seats went largely to figures at the extreme ends of the spectrum. The Greens, who come across as embodying the extreme left, had six seats up for grabs in the election, and held them all. Although not facing the voters at this year’s election, Pauline Hanson saw her party gain one Senate seat and lose another, and they come across as embodying the extreme right. Most other Senate crossbenchers contesting this year’s election, including popular Independent Derryn Hinch, lost their seats.
But Lambie, who was previously in the Senate before being booted out because of concerns about dual citizenship, was able to win a Senate seat in Tasmania, picking up around 8.9 per cent of the vote there. Unlike the Greens and Hanson, she’s not easy to “box in” when you talk about left and right. This doesn’t mean that she’s a centrist – she’s just more likely to change her mind, in terms of what piece of legislation comes before her.
She’ll vote with the Coalition on some things, and with Labor on others. There won’t always be certainty on how she’ll vote, and maybe that’s a good thing.
Certainly Tasmanians seem to like her, though not as much as South Australians liked Xenophon. She’ll be around for a while, and she’ll make a difference.
In a way, having politicians who are hard to read can be good. People arguably like politicians who act on instinct and beliefs and principles. Those in major parties in particular look too much like their strings are being pulled.
Lambie will vote as she sees fit. She won’t be boxed in when it comes to voting for or against anything. And she’s always been forthright in speaking her mind, which few politicians do. Federal Parliament needs more people like her.