Federal Election 2019: Malcolm Turnbull’s amazing political gift to ScoMo

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull has delivered an extraordinary gift to Scott Morrison which will make it easier for the Coalition to pass legislation over the next three years.

Mr Turnbull’s changes to the Senate’s voting rules in 2016 have finally borne fruit, with micro-party candidates finding it impossible this election to wrangle their way into the Senate with complicated backroom preference deals.

It means the new Senate crossbench will be noticeably smaller, leaving the Morrison Government with fewer parties to negotiate with.

With half the Senate votes counted yesterday, it appeared Clive Palmer had failed to win a single Senate seat for his United Australia Party, despite spending $80 million on a national advertising blitz.

One Nation was likely to lose its only WA senator Peter Georgiou and not regain its NSW seat won by Brian Burston in 2016. One Nation will be left with two senators, both from Queensland.

Far-right Queensland senator Fraser Anning failed in his bid to return to the Senate, while the vote for Victorian senator Derryn Hinch appears to have collapsed.

Independent Tasmanian Jacqui Lambie looks likely to return to the Senate.

The Greens appear to have won a Senate seat in every State, keeping its numbers at nine.

The number of non-Green crossbenchers appears to fall from 10 to six, and the Government is track to hold up to 34 out of 76 seats, short of the 39 it needs for a majority.

“This is the election that brought home the bacon on that front,” WA election analyst William Bowe said, about Mr Turnbull’s Senate voting rule changes.

“They look like good old-fashioned Senate preference results before Senate harvesting and the explosion in micro-parties.”