The new cross bench

All of which leads me to conclude that the pundits are wrong again. I give the government six months – maybe a bit more – before it realises that very little is going to get through the Senate via the crossbench, and it stops wasting its energy on us altogether.

The only legislation the government would then pursue will be supported by Labor. Labor may even take a conciliatory approach on some issues, because it doesn't want to be seen as obstructionist and sees an opportunity to make Bill Shorten look like a Prime Minister in waiting.

How some of the crossbench senators might cope with the attention deficit remains to be seen, but it has the potential to be good political theatre.

Unfortunately, it won't be so good for Australia. Don't expect to see much progress on repairing the budget, controlling spending or reducing taxes. But then, on these matters, not many of the pundits seem to care.