Save Our Senate

So GetUp! has got a new campaign to put the above ad onto the airwaves.

Don't underestimate the power of the Senate. When the Coalition won control of the Upper House in 2004, they promised they would use it "very carefully, very wisely and not provocatively".

If this means rubber stamping every piece of legislation from House of Reps, then yes, they have kept their promise.

With the Australian Greens swapping preferences in the House with Labor, who will then give preferences to them in the Senate, the chances of getting a more balanced Senate may just be there.

The only problem is - where will that leave the Democrats?

The Australian Democrats are on the brink of extinction, which is a shame, because I believe they are the one party who continually gives it to the government. I am also surprised because i don't consider them to be as radical as the Greens, and I always thought this would have given them an advantage in the central swinging voters. Obviously not.

Michelle Grattan explained the power of the Senate and the minor parties in a column in the Age on Monday.

The Senate battle is being fought at two levels. There is a united message from the minors that the upper house should return to the checks-and-balances role that had seemed permanently entrenched until the surprise of the 2004 election. Then there is the battle between them. Yesterday we saw this co-operative/competitive combination in the minor parties' messages.

Grattan says that the Greens/Labor preference deal has cultivated some sparks:

[The preference deal] prompted Government Senate leader Nick Minchin to a dire warning about the danger of the Senate becoming "mired in chaos". "This is the first time in Australian history that a radical left-wing party like the Greens have been poised to gain such an unprecedented level of power in the Senate," Minchin said.

Nationals Senate leader Ron Boswell chimed in yesterday, saying the joint ad showed Labor, Greens and Democrats closely shared political philosophies and calling for Labor to "come clean" on deals it had done with minor parties. "This handcuffs Labor and the radical Greens into a coalition," he said, making "coalition" suddenly sound a dirty word.

The Greens/Labor preference deal is hardly a surprise, but has drawn howls of outrage from Family First. Family First and the Government will be cuddling up on preferences, leaving the Democrats, who can't take a trick, out in the cold.

I'm gonna go 1 for the Dems and try and get Lyn Shumack in. There is only one NSW minority party Senator currently - which is Kerry Nettle from the Greens.

Because most of my friends live in Queensland, I wholeheartedly reccomend you give your top preference to the Democrats in the Senate - where Andrew Bartlett is the lead candidate. They have recently swapped preferences with the Greens (who's candidate is Larissa Waters) in a bid to stop Liberal and Labor and challenge Pauline Hanson's bid.