He has called it the Nick Xenophon Team or NXT. Have we seen all this before? It is a snappy name. We now officially have teams in Australian politics as well as Tony Abbott's Team Australia. But it is too personal. Centre Party or even Nick Xenophon Centre Party would have been a better choice with a stronger chance of lasting success outside South Australia. One of the weaknesses of Xenophon's concept is that he is still probably not well enough known outside his home state.

Neither Xenophon's diagnosis of the problem with politics nor his suggested cure are new. His diagnosis is a reflection on major party politics in that he thinks that "at the moment there is such a toxic partisan disconnect" that it has caused Australians to be increasingly disillusioned with their political representatives. He wants to press the "reset button" so that "the tone of Parliament will improve and we can actually work on solving the nation's problems".

This sounds very much like what Independents Rob Oakeshott and/or Tony Windsor were saying in the last Parliament or, going further back, the views of Independent Peter Andren in Calare. It was also the basis for the election of Cathy McGowan in Indi in 2013. They took the independent road at the electorate level but not the political party road. Oakeshott, in particular, wanted a new paradigm in Parliament, but we have ended up with a partisan Speaker in Bronwyn Bishop rather than a much-hoped-for Independent Speaker.

But the strongest echoes to be heard in Xenophon's words are those of former federal minister Don Chipp, when he left the Liberal Party to set up the Australian Democrats in 1977. The most successful Australian minor party, until the Greens, was subsequently born. Chipp wanted to take a middle course between big business and big unions. He wanted to keep the bastards honest.

The name Centre Party was one of the serious options considered by Chipp because it was the name of one of the small forerunners of the new party and neatly summarised where the Democrats wanted to sit on the political continuum. The name, used in parts of Europe, still has real potential.

Xenophon's preference for a new party means that he now has to set up a party structure, raise the necessary funds and start encouraging and vetting candidates around the country (as well as being open to Independents who want a sort of associate membership of his team). In doing so he will taking a path that all minor and micro parties have to follow. It is not easy.

Pauline Hanson's One Nation Party and Clive Palmer's Palmer United Party took this course. Their history of division and splits shows that this is path is fraught with difficulties that Xenophon must try to avoid. Whether he can do that depends on whether or not he can attract the right kind of candidates in sufficient quantity.

What is the right kind of candidate? There is no one type for success. The diverse character and style of the eight Independent and minor party senators plus the Independent members of the House of Representatives shows what is possible outside the major parties and the Greens. Some of them, including Ricky Muir and Jacqui Lambie, have been subject to much unwarranted criticism because they are undoubtedly rough diamonds. However, the performance, on average, of these Independents has been as good as that of the more mainstream party MPs in my view.

Therefore Xenophon must not shy away from recruiting colourful, even outrageous candidates, so long as they are committed to his own values as laid out in the party prospectus and prepared to be disciplined and hard-working. There are plenty of likely candidates in the community; the difficulty will be in encouraging them stand up publicly and to do the work necessary even though the odds on success will be long.

Once Xenophon has done this then he must be realistic about his chances of success. The first measure of success will be whether, to paraphrase Xenophon, a strong NXT candidate in a marginal seat can keep the two major parties on their toes. This is a limited but realistic aspiration as there is little chance of success in the House of Representatives. The Democrats, even when their then leader Janine Haines stood as the candidate, couldn't do it. The Greens have only tasted success in the seat of Melbourne.

The Senate is a different matter. Proportional representation makes it possible and a centrist party led by Xenophon fills a philosophical gap. But even in the Senate NXT can only be successful by taking on not just the major parties but the Greens and PUP and all the other micro parties and Independents as well.

Unless the remainder of the country becomes like South Australia where the major parties were decimated in the Senate at the last election it would seem probable that there is not room for all the existing minors and Independents plus some more NXT senators. So it is not just the major parties that will be looking closely at what happens with Xenophon's proposed new party. Existing micro parties and Independents have plenty at stake as well.

John Warhurst is an emeritus professor of political science at the Australian National University.

John.Warhurst@anu.edu.au