The bells have been ringing non-stop with division after division in the Senate this morning as the Government has bought on the guillotine to ram the Telstra sale through.

If the industrial relations legislation finally makes an appearance when parliament sits next month, will we see something similar? Their passage through the Senate could be even more fraught, with Government senators raising states rights objection to the proposed measures.

The Government lost its fallback senators on Telstra yesterday, with very clear declarations against the sale from Family First’s Steve Fielding and Democrat Andrew Murray. These two could also be crucial to the IR outcome.

The centrepiece of Fielding’s maiden speech was a commitment to wages outcomes that suggested he’d inherited old Labor man Brian Harradine’s views, as well as his staff. Fielding spoke of “the tension between the market and families.” Surely, he said, “it is time to replace our obsession with the market.”

Yesterday he lambasted the Government for failing to provide him with a “Family Impact Statement” over the Telstra sale. The statements were promised to Family First by the Prime Minister during the campaign last year in exchange for preferences.

The Treasurer fudged the issue when it was raised in his presser at lunchtime yesterday:

JOURNALIST: Treasurer, did Cabinet consider a family impact statement when it was looking at the Telstra sale bills, and if it did, why wasn’t it released?

TREASURER: Well we can not release Cabinet documents, I think that is the point, but of course you look at family impact. You look at family impact, and this is the way I would look at it, competitive telecommunications which keeps costs down for families. A package which will allow for improved access to broadband, particularly for rural and regional families. The possibility of keeping debt low, so that interests rates are low for families. You can look at all of those things.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) the Family First were after, in terms a statement, a documents (inaudible) …

TREASURER: Well, there is no political party that owns families in Australia. We are all part of families, and we are all interested in families, and this idea that because you do not have family in your name, you are not interested in families, I do not think I would agree with that proposition.

JOURNALIST: (inaudible) Family First statement, is there (inaudible)

TREASURER: Look to be frank, I assume so. Look to be frank I can not give you a definitive answer on that, I do not want to mislead you on …

Fielding and Family First have no doubt learned something about political naivety over the last few weeks. When will they give the Government a lesson in return?