The last weeks of the parliamentary year showed the Senate cross bench in action. It contains various emphases and points of view. To say they are a mixed bag is an understatement.
All that is really lacking is an extreme left senator unrestrained by Labor/Green discipline. But to say that it is generally conservative doesn't adequately capture its unpredictability. They cannot be properly categorised using traditional left-right labels.
Amid all the controversy I've grown comfortable with their place in the Senate and appreciative of their collective presence in an otherwise party dominated chamber. They each have their flaws, some of them serious, but they make a generally positive contribution to public discussion and to ultimate legislative outcomes. We are better off for their presence.
Jacqui Lambie has gumption and a straight-talking style. It was a pleasure to watch her in a committee hearing taking no nonsense from corporate representatives trying to use economic gobbledygook to defend the impact on struggling farmers of $1 per litre milk in the big supermarkets. She also took a lead on the backpacker tax question.
Derryn Hinch is cheerful and unflappable with an easy and relaxed demeanour. Someone needed to shake up the faux formality of the parliamentary chambers. He has continued his campaign against child sex abusers and contributed to opening Senate proceedings to television scrutiny.
David Leyonhjelm is urbane and cultivated despite his gun-toting proclivities. He overplays his role as a bridge between the government and Labor/Greens but someone certainly needs to fill this gap. His libertarian anti-government views cut refreshingly across the major parties' traditional approach.
Nick Xenophon has been tarnished by his leap from lone Independent to party leader with cracks emerging in his seemingly innocent and wide-eyed persona. But he remains a voice for some good causes, like whistle blowers and open government, and for protection for depressed regions. He is also a skilled negotiator of amendments to government legislation. His approach to Murray Darling water flows led to greater consultation.
Pauline Hanson and her party remain elusive. They still look like a mad bunch of eccentrics and their extremist follies should never be forgotten. She herself is over-exposed, and yet to evolve beyond a caricature despite 20 years in public life. Her team members demonstrate a worrying adherence to conspiracy theories, but some have begun to show their individual capacities to compromise.
"It is difficult to portray this government as an efficient outfit whose good policy ideas