Poor old Mike Smith must be reaching for his copy of Mein Kampf:
Nationals senators who claim to have been ambushed over the bill to legalise same-sex marriage are planning to use identical tactics to legislate for a banking royal commission as an act of vengeance.
Queensland senator Barry O’Sullivan plans to unveil on Thursday next week a private members bill establishing a royal commission. The bill would be co-sponsored by the Nationals, Labor, the Greens and Senate crossbench parties.
Such a bill would easily pass the Senate and could pass the House of Representatives, especially with Coalition MPs Barnaby Joyce and John Alexander missing while they fight byelections caused by their dual citizenship.
The Nationals would still need two lower house Coalition MPs to cross the floor to achieve the absolute majority of 76 votes needed to enable debate on a private members bill. But once this was achieved, the bill could then pass without anyone crossing the floor because only a simple majority is needed and Labor and the crossbench outnumber the government by 74 to 73 with Mr Alexander and Mr Joyce missing.
The Australian Financial Review understands Senator O’Sullivan is talking to fellow Queensland National George Christensen about having him and one other cross the floor.
Let’s just get the thing done.
