The Nick Xenophon Team is to this election what the Palmer United Party was to the 2013 one. It is potentially the ‘next big new thing’ in the Senate.
Many voters feel the major parties aren’t listening, which can be part of the appeal of populist candidates such as One Nation’s Pauline Hanson.
Dan Peled/AAP
Watch Anne Tiernan and Duncan McDonnell discuss the popularity of minor parties and independents in this election – including what the Nick Xenophon Team learnt from the Palmer United Party.
Newspoll is showing a rise to 15% in support for ‘others’ – independents and parties other than the major parties and the Greens.
Lukas Coch/AAP
One-third of people believe the next Senate should have more or the same number of crossbenchers, according to polling done for the Australia Institute.
According to polling, Nick Xenophon and his team are on track to secure about three Senate spots.
AAP/Mick Tsikas
The Senate reforms and a double-dissolution election means that it is difficult to predict who will be sitting in the upper house after July 2. But you can count on Nick Xenophon being there.
Nick Xenophon, an absolute vote magnet, appears likely to get at least three senators including himself.
Julian Smith/AAP
For those who might feel this election campaign will never end, it is worth revisiting why the voters are enduring eight weeks rather than the normal five. Calling a double dissolution – the specific circumstances…
Those who do understand the Senate voting system have the potential to wield some influence both in its conduct and in debates about how it might be reformed.
Jay Weatherill's willingness to countenance an increase to the GST angered federal Labor colleagues. But he tells Michelle Grattan he has no regrets about his "circuit-breaker" intervention.
At the start of a frenetic year for independent Nick Xenophon, the South Australian senator says his new national political party, the Nick Xenophon Team, will fill a vacuum.
Cross-bench Senator Nick Xenophon wants the law to change to protect gift card holders when companies collapse.
Gemma Najem/AAP
Most of us would agree that cancer drugs should be listed on the PBS, no matter how dear. But our health system can’t afford all of them. How then are decisions about which drugs to subsidise made?
Tony Abbott has announced a commitment to defence shipbuilding in South Australia.
Ben Macmahon/AAP
While it’s easy for the large miners to argue increased iron ore production is business as usual, the overall cost to the sector warrants a closer inspection.
The government knows that solar panel subsidies are very popular with voters.
zstock/Shutterstock
Federal industry minister Ian Macfarlane has finally revealed his opening gambit on negotiations on the future of the Renewable Energy Target (RET). He and environment minister Greg Hunt have pledged to…
Independent senator Nick Xenophon’s brief detention and deportation won’t harm bilateral relations but is more about Malaysia’s looming election.
David Crosling/AAP
The detention and deportation of Senator Nick Xenophon from Malaysia yesterday are not likely to present problems for Australia—Malaysia relations. Rather, the Xenophon story is shaped by the domestic…
Evidence shows most people did not gamble away their carbon tax compensation, despite media claims at the time.
AAP
Like many policy issues in Australia, the public debate and media coverage on the relationship between government payments and spending at electronic gaming machines or ‘pokies’ is sensationalist and exaggerated…
Senator Xenophon’s proposals for the Qantas Sale Act won’t fly with Qantas CEO Alan Joyce, who says the effects could be detrimental for the beleaguered airline.
AAP
Senator Nick Xenophon’s call for change to the Qantas Sale Act has made headlines across the world this week. He has challenged the Senate committee to support amendments to the Act that would require…