PURE GOLD FROM ANNABELLE

“Forget all the Labor blokes jockeying for front-bench spots on the House of Representatives' green leather. These are struggles around personal ego and legacy. How do we know this? Here's a clue: Andrew Charlton, who just held on to the marginal seat of Parramatta and is among the most clearly gifted people of the NSW Right — isn't anywhere near the head of the Cabinet queue, and it's not because he's a man. It's because he's in a queue, and the queue is full of dudes.

Forget, even — honestly, you can afford to, because they are going to be a hot mess for quite some time — who becomes Liberal leader. Whoever it is will almost certainly be a placeholder.

Because the real power, after July 1, is in the Senate. The real deals on what gets through and what doesn't are going to be struck on red carpet, not green.

Who's in charge in the Senate?

Let's check, because hardly anyone ever mentions it, but it's about to be screamingly important.

At present, the government's leader is Penny Wong, who manages Senate business with the assistance of Albanese's implicitly-trusted Finance Minister Katy Gallagher. The Coalition's Senate leader is Michaelia Cash, flanked by South Australian Liberal Anne Ruston. Who knows who the Greens' new leader will be? But if (as is possible) the job goes to either the Senate leader Larissa Waters or deputy leader Mehreen Faruqi or long-serving South Australian senator Sarah Hanson Young, who manages the party's Senate business, the quiet pattern is confirmed. The current theatrics feel blokey, but the future is female.

Don't tell the cardinals.”

The Senate is where this parliamentary term gets zesty! 

As it should be 

The House of Review AND The Future IS female. 

This senatorial entertainment will be pure gold and something we have NEVER seen in any previous Australian parliament. 

I so love our Westminster system of democracy.