Tony Abbott says all senators were 'legitimately, democratically elected'
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Version 0 of 1. Tony Abbott has described each of the new crossbench senators as “legitimately, democratically elected” – despite a likely overhaul of the voting system to counter the rise of micro-parties. Abbott said on Thursday he respected the will of the Australian people, as he reached out to the incoming senators who will be crucial to his prospects of passing contentious legislation, including the government's priority of scrapping the carbon pricing scheme. The new senators – who include representatives of the Palmer United, Australian Motoring Enthusiast, Family First, Liberal Democrat and Greens parties – are attending orientation sessions on Thursday and Friday to learn about parliamentary procedures in an event dubbed “Senate kindy”. Some of the new members are already flexing their muscle, with Tasmanian Jacqui Lambie warning that the Palmer United party (PUP) senators would not back down from their opposition to the Medicare co-payment, the university fee deregulation and paid parental leave. The Family First South Australian senator Bob Day reaffirmed his previous comments to Guardian Australia that he would oppose cutting young unemployed people off income support for months at a time unless the government changed industrial relations laws to allow jobseekers to take a job at below-award rates. Abbott, who met the Australian Motoring Enthusiast party’s Victorian senator, Ricky Muir, on Wednesday, said he would deal with all crossbench senators with respect and courtesy. “He [Muir] is a decent, salt-of-the-earth country Victorian who is going to do his best to make a contribution to his state and to his country in the Senate, as I think all of the crossbench senators will try,” Abbott said on Thursday. “I think that it's important to respect the verdict of the Australian people. Every one of the crossbench senators was legitimately, democratically elected. They've all got a contribution to make and I want to work with them to maximise that contribution.” Although Abbott acknowledged the legitimacy of the election of the micro-party crossbench senators, the government could be on a collision course with those same senators over proposed changes to Senate voting and party registration laws. A spokesman for the special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, confirmed on Thursday that the government’s position had not changed and it was still considering recommendations of the joint standing committee on electoral matters. In a report presented to the government in May, the committee recommended introducing optional preferential voting in the Senate, the abolition of group voting tickets, and registration requirements forcing parties to have a minimum of 1,500 unique members, compared with the current requirement of 500. The Liberal MP who chaired the committee, Tony Smith, said the Senate voting system had let down the Australian people at the 2013 election because micro-parties had “gamed” the system through elaborate preferences deals, resulting in some outcomes that “distorted the will of the voter”. “The Australian Motoring Enthusiasts party received just 0.51% of the primary vote, but their candidate was elected to the Senate through ’gaming’ the system,” Smith wrote, referring to Muir. “Clearly, given the circumstances, this election did not represent the genuine will of the voters.” The government could inflame tensions with crucial micro-party senators if it pursues the changes to voting practices. While Labor and Greens committee members welcomed the recommendations as a way to put more control in the hands of voters, the micro-parties voiced their fierce opposition. The Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm has previously warned that he would allow the changes “over my dead body”, while Day said the reforms were “industry incumbents conspiring with each other to lock out new entrants”. The Democratic Labour party senator, John Madigan, previously accused the major parties of trying to protect the “political duopoly” and the PUP leader, Clive Palmer, said the big players were afraid of competition. Ahead of the first sitting of the new upper house next week, the incoming senators have been learning about parliamentary roles, departments, procedures and how legislation is debated and passed. On Friday the senators are expected to attend the chamber for a practice swearing-in and a rehearsal of procedures, according to an agenda posted on the Business Spectator website. The government requires the support of six out of eight crossbench senators to pass any legislation opposed by Labor and the Greens in the upper house. This means the three PUP senators – Lambie, Glenn Lazarus and Dio Wang – have the potential to vote with Labor and the Greens to block government bills. Lambie said there had not yet been “a lot of controversy” within the party and Palmer was a good listener. She had “plenty of say” and none of the PUP senators were controlled by Palmer. “I get my way. I just don’t back down and when Dio and Laz can actually get a few words in between me and Clive Palmer they’ve got plenty to say as well,” Lambie told ABC radio on Thursday. Asked if there was any prospect of the PUP compromising on its opposition to some key budget measures, Lambie said: “No, I’m not compromising on that whatsoever and I don’t believe any other members of the party are going to either, especially that $7 co-payment, deregulation of university fees and the paid parental leave, which is a very big sticking point for Palmer United.” Lambie said she had not met Abbott but had watched him a lot and had read his books. Asked about her past description of Abbott as a “political psychopath”, Lambie said that “parading his daughters around” during the last election campaign was a security issue and “was the last straw for me”. The opposition leader, Bill Shorten, said Labor would continue to oppose the “rotten, unfair budget” and he was sure crossbenchers of goodwill would listen to the arguments. In a sign of growing acceptance that key budget proposals would be blocked without amendments, Abbott told Fairfax Radio 3AW: “I’m not saying that nothing will ever be changed or adjusted. I’m not saying that there won’t ever be any fine-tuning or finessing.” The leader of the government in the Senate, Eric Abetz, who will have a crucial role in crossbench negotiations, said the upper house would be more manageable now that the Greens and Labor no longer held a blocking majority. “At least we have a majority in the Senate now whom we can talk with on a practical basis, and not a group of senators who still resent the decision of the Australian people from 7 September last year,” Abetz told Sky News. |