The Coalition government has struggled to absorb its last-minute failure to achieve One Nation’s support for its Ensuring Union Integrity Bill. But some calm perspective is required: legislative defeat is the loss of just one pathway to a policy objective. Other opportunities always present themselves.

Big ticket stand-alone regulation is always dangerous in the present environment because parties place so much public political capital on success or defeat, and risks and threats are magnified accordingly. In the latest case, One Nation wasn’t prepared to expose its Central and Far North Queensland support base to hostile billboards and local union rallies – tried and tested political tools in the region – as the price for supporting Coalition priorities in a state election year. No one says One Nation can’t do a basic political SWOT analysis.