Out with the old, in with the same-old, same-old?

Fourteen
Senators have been bidding farewell and finish their terms next week –
Liberals Sue Knowles and Tsebin Tchen; Labor’s Nick Bolkus, Geoff
Buckland, Jacinta Collins, Peter Cook and Kay Denman; Democrats John
Cherry, Brian Greig and Aden Ridgeway; One Nation’s Len Harris and
independents and party defectors Brian Harradine, Meg Lees and Shayne
Murphy.

In
their place will come Liberals Judith Adams, Stephen Parry, Michael
Ronaldson and Russell Trood, the man who gave the Coalition the
notional numbers in the Senate; the man who didn’t, the Nationals’
Barnaby Joyce, and his colleague Fiona Nash; Labor’s Annette Hurley,
Anne McEwen, Helen Polley, Sterle Glenn and Dana Wortley, Greens
Christine Milne and Rachel Siewert and Family First’s Steve Fielding.

The
Senate gets all emotional at these times. The chance to give your own
eulogy is irresistible, after all – but a collective sookiness
overtakes the entire Chamber. Bitter enemies embrace amid treacle and
saccharine. And – Goddamn! – even the Gallery gets caught up in the
sticky mess. Crikey doesn’t. Here are some Senate obituaries:

• Labor’s Nick Bolkus
has done very well for himself – and some friends. His egregious
Immigration Review Tribunal appointments will be long remembered. “The
dog ate my Declaration of Senator’s Interests” line earlier this week
was a perfect note to go out on.

• Democrat John Cherry
was a repentant Queensland Labor lad. The skills at political
arithmetic he picked up with the bruvvers will be missed by a party
that’s lost virtually any edge it had.

• Brian Harradine,
a dedicated enemy of economic and personal liberty, was the perfect old
right wing Labor type. And just think. If it wasn’t for the idiot Left
of that party, how long could they have had his Senate spot for? Might
have come in useful.

• Senator Len Harris, Qld, PHON – standing for Pauline Hanson’s Over Now.

• Meg Lees.
Perhaps one day the more naïve of her former Democrat colleagues will
actually do the sums. You’ve got to get the money for big government
somewhere.