Whips and wisecracks: Who will be the new Lord of the Crossbench?
As the final votes are recounted in Bradfield, and the Coalition parties promise to listen better and to go to therapy after their brief separation, CBD's eyes are now turned to the latest position up for grabs in the upcoming 48th parliament.
We're talking about the semi-official role of crossbench whip, or the MP responsible for ensuring their crossbench colleagues all get their voices heard during the chaos of question time.
In the past, this task had fallen to former Greens leader Adam Bandt, or rather, his office. And when the crossbench swelled to a record 16 MPs after the 2022 election, it took on an outsized role, particularly after Labor's leader of the house Tony Burke increased the amount of airtime crossbenchers got in question time.
It made sense for Bandt to take on the role since, as leader of a designated political party, he had more staff. This put him in a different category than the teal independents, who were left livid when Prime Minister Anthony Albanese slashed their staffing allocations after the 2022 election in a manner that made Scott Morrison seem like Santa.
But then Bandt suffered a shock, losing his seat of Melbourne to Labor's Sarah Witty on what was a forgettable night for the Greens.
So who will take on Bandt's old role as king (or queen) of the crossbench? Nationals leader David Littleproud 's decision to come crawling back to the Coalition makes things a lot easier. And while Bob Katter, famed for his Homeric approach to question time, would be the banter choice, we're not sure anyone else would ever get a word in edgeways.
There's been some suggestion out of the teal universe that one of the posse who now occupy the Liberal Party's old leafy turf could step up. Warringah MP Zali Steggall has been touted as a possibility. She's been around a bit longer, and she has a sharp grasp of parliamentary procedure. But CBD understands that Steggall is yet to decide whether she wants to take on the role.
Separately, there's been persistent chatter that some members of the teal movement would like to form a separate political party – perhaps headed up by Steggall – which would solve the staffing question, if anything.
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