Don’t miss this week’s FIREWORKS in the Senate

The battleground of Australian politics this week transfers from the House of Representatives to the Senate – where the five Greens, Family First’s Senator Steve Fielding and South Australian independent Nick Xenophon threaten key Rudd Government policies – and thus to hamstring Labor’s 32 Senators.

It is likely that the whole process of orderly government could be in the hands of the two minority South Australian Senators - which is not the first time that Australian Democracy has nurtured special Senate favouritism.

Ever heard of Tasmania’s Brian Harradine, Senator from 1975 to 2005, and acclaimed as “Father of the House,” the longest serving independent Senator since Federation. We are yet to see whether either Fielding or Xenophon – or any of the Greens, including Bob Brown, their leader, - will have Harradine’s stamina, guile, and manipulative negotiating skills.

This battleground is studded with separate combat – ranging from Alcopop taxation and Petrol Watch at the one end and the Government’s carefully evolving economic and emission trading policies of climate change policy at the other.

Question Time in the Senate is generally held to be so boring it’s almost unwatchable. But NOT this week! Switch on!