Surprise, surprise. The government never really meant its implicit threat about the possibility of an early election. This was always a clumsy attempt to try to bluff the Greens into supporting the government’s social housing package.

Yet even at that level, it made no political sense. Perhaps the Greens might lose some of their Senate seats in a double dissolution election where the lower quota for the Senate might make it easier for other independents or minor parties to get elected. Perhaps Labor might also pick up a couple of Senate seats from a weakened Liberal Party still in search of a viable policy direction.