Did the people of Indi know they were voting for a liberal. Mcgowan is supposed to be an independent. And she had a liberal going against her. Mirabella. Mcgowan sold her independence to the liberals with out any thought what so ever, as to her voters.

With Sam Dastiyari and Pauline Hanson refusing to observe that winning gov't is a mandate for gov't policy, things look bleak.

The LNP did well to win gov't from where it was before Turnbull took the reigns from Abbott. The knives were out after the lie fest that saw the Abbott gov't elected, and difficult issues were tackled such as super and pensions, while there were no great sweeteners put before the electorate and a maintenance of unpopular savings measures carried over from the previous parliament.

If there is no overall agreement on the need for debt reduction by our senators, Australia will wallow.

I do not believe our founding fathers expected the Senate to simply be an extension of the House of Reps, voting along party lines, when drafting the constitution. Now, more than ever, some appreciation of this is essential.

...by "debt reduction" I mean along the lines the LNP took to the election and won.