The rise and fall of flighty independents

Senator Lambie's decision to caucus with Motoring Enthusiast Party Senator Ricky Muir and independent Senators John Madigan and Nick Xenophon to scupper Clive Palmer's deal of just four months ago to allow the Coalition's financial advice rules to pass the upper house clearly surprised Eric Abetz. At one point the Senate Leader asked: "why the hurry, why the urgency, why the need for this?"

A good many voters have been left scratching their heads too, particularly since Senator Lambie made clear her intention to vote against all of the government's legislation until it offered Australian Defence Force personnel a better pay deal.

Her grand-standing on this single issue has accentuated Senator Lambie's growing reputation for eccentricity, while Senator Muir's flip-flopping has raised serious doubts about his capacity to deal with the pressures of being in the parliamentary spotlight. The already dented credibility of Clive Palmer and his party looks to have suffered a further blow, too.

The election of six new cross-bench senators at the last federal election was attributed in large part to groups and individuals gaming the Senate electoral system, in particular the flow of preferences between minor parties. But there is not much doubt that a significant part of the electorate, weary of largely indistinguishable personnel and policies of the two major parties, were attracted to candidates of a different stripe.

Many of 2013's election hopefuls sought to cash in on that sentiment by portraying themselves as people with real jobs who, by definition, were in closer touch to the aspirations of ordinary voters than the faceless, major-party candidates.

However, several of the crossbenchers elected at last year's elections were neither political clean skins nor ordinary in the usual sense of the word. Family First Senator Bob Day may call himself a former plumber, but he is, in fact, a wealthy builder who poured substantial sums of his own money into his election campaign.

Ms Lambie and Liberal Democrats Senator David Leyonhjelm have both been members of the Liberal Party, while Clive Palmer had a long association with Queensland Liberal/National Party politics.

Which contributed more to the current crop of cross-benchers winning their passage to Canberra – quirk of fate or major party blowback – remains a matter of debate. However, the wider electorate has generally come to expect that such MPs develop a coherent narrative on the other issues that come before Parliament.

Senators Xenophon, Leyonhjelm, Day – and to a lesser extent Madigan – have been eloquent advocates for their own causes, and have made thoughtful contributions on other aspects of government. Others such as PUP Senators Zhenya Wang and Glenn Lazarus have been quieter. That's not necessarily deserving of censure since there are a great many senators (and MPs for that matter) who are invisible to the public. But unlike their major party colleagues, independents cannot remain cyphers and expect to win re-election. And they are certain to be discarded if they prove to be ideologically elusive, ill-disciplined or display a brittle temperament.

The opportunism of Clive Palmer and Jacqui Lambie bodes ill for the smooth running of the Senate between now and 2016. It will certainly make the Government's task of reeling in the budget deficit much harder than it might be. There are some, however, who would suggest that this was divine justice for a party which elevated political expediency and parliamentary obstructionism to a high art when it was in Opposition.

Cross-bench shenanigans might also lead, ultimately, to far fewer single-issue candidates accidentally landing in Parliament. Certainly, they will add weight to calls for the Senate voting system to be reformed. The ACT experienced a similar rash of single-issue politicians in the early years of self-government. Disgust at the antics of some independents, and the implementation of Robson rotation, has seen them virtually disappear in Canberra.