By Annabel Crabb.
Muir himself passionately opposes the legislation. The only reason he sought to bring it on was so the Government would look opportunistic and venal for voting not to have a debate on its own bill.
This is the Senate, people. A more frightening hellscape of passive aggression is yet to be identified.
Simultaneously, another opponent of the Senate reforms - David Leyonhjelm, a charming maniac who was elected in 2013 when his party, the Liberal Democrats, miraculously drew the first spot on the NSW Senate voting bedsheet and instantly won the vote of many Liberals who weren't paying close attention - sought to distract the Greens by moving to start the Senate's debate on same-sex marriage.
This is a cruelly brilliant tactic, seeing that there is nothing, in the ordinary course of events, that any Green Senator - or any Green anywhere, for that matter - would rather do than have a debate about same-sex marriage. I have met Greens who would interrupt their own same-sex marriage in order to have a debate about same-sex marriage. And yet, they resisted.
Leyonhjelm's tactic is at least allied with his personal belief; he supports the removal of same-sex marriage prohibitions. But his scorn for the Greens - who staidly refused to take the bait - chimed in nicely with the approach of the Labor Party, which celebrates diversity by having variable historical positions on both Senate reform and gay marriage, but these days takes a hard line on disapproving of the Greens.
Labor Senator Sam Dastyari authored Labor's formal response to the Senate reform proposal, which went light on opposing the actual reforms, but heavy on them going too fast, and involving the Greens.
Yesterday, Senator Dastyari - a man of reliable enthusiasm - restricted himself to uncontroversial territory, focusing his attack on Greens leader Richard di Natale's recent appearance in GQ magazine clad in a top-of-the-range black skivvy.
"I speak from experience here; you have to draw the line somewhere. This is coming from a bloke who did a re-enactment of a mobile phone on the ABC," Senator Dastyari said.
"When I say 'are you crazy for doing a GQ fashion shoot dressed up as the cat burglar and pretend you support progressive values and progressive politics', then you know you've gone too far."
This is the intractable element of Senate reform. You can take the Senator out of the Senate, but you can't take the Senate out of the Senator.
Annabel Crabb writes for The Drum and is the presenter of Kitchen Cabinet. She tweets at @annabelcrabb.
This post originally appeared on the ABC.
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