News laws to protect volunteer firefighters could be in doubt with more independents and minor party senators to take up seats

NEW laws to protect volunteer firefighters and reinstate the building industry watchdog could be in doubt, with more independents and minor party senators expected to take up positions in the upper hosue.

Nick Xenophon and his Senators will likely hold three seats in the upper house. Picture: Brenton Edwards/AFP

NEW laws to protect volunteer firefighters and reinstate the building industry watchdog could be in doubt, with more independents and minor party senators expected to take up positions on the red benches when Parliament returns.

Just over 50 per cent of votes had been counted by yesterday, and the new-look Senate could include up to 10 crossbenchers including Pauline Hanson, Derryn Hinch and at least nine Greens senators.

While the Coalition expects to secure the numbers to form government, it will not have a majority in the Upper House where it is on track to secure just 30 of the 76 spots.

A re-elected Turnbull government would instead be forced to cosy up to an eclectic crossbench which will have outspoken Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie, and South Australian Nick Xenophon, who is expected to get three senators in his home state where he outpolled Labor.

Greens leader Richard Di Natale said the final make-up of the Senate would not be known for weeks, but said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull’s gamble to blast out a hostile crossbench had been an “abysmal failure”.

If elected, the Coalition will need the support from 114 of the 226 senators and members of the House of Representatives to guarantee its two industrial relations Bills — the triggers for the double dissolution election — are passed by Parliament.

The future of the signature legislation is in doubt as the Greens, Labor and Senator Lambie oppose the Bills.

The Herald Sun understands Ms Hanson wants to speak to unions and workers before deciding how she will vote on the restoration of the Australian Building and Construction Commission and the Registered Organisations Bill.

Victoria’s newest senator, veteran broadcaster Derryn Hinch, also said he would consult experts and “read the fine print” before voting.

“I am not playing politics when I don’t declare positions on contentious issues before I even get to Canberra,” he told the Herald Sun.

Senator Xenophon will be an important ally for whichever party forms government, potentially controlling a handful of votes needed to pass controversial Bills.

But Senator Xenophon has indicated he would back Mr Turnbull’s plans to change the Fair Work Act to protect Country Fire Authority volunteers.

Early figures suggest Ms Hanson’s One Nation could secure up to four seats in the new Senate.

Her party polled strongly in Queensland, New South Wales and Western Australia.

More than half of the eight crossbench senators that blocked a number of savings measures, including large parts of the 2014 Budget, have now lost their seats.

In NSW, Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm is in a fight to retain his senate spot while former crossbench colleagues Glenn Lazarus, Dio Wang and Ricky Muir have not been re-elected.

Family First’s Bob Day is still in with a chance in SA if he has secured preferences and the Katter Party is still an outside chance in Queensland.

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