Liberal defector David Van deals with Tanya Plibersek, Labor

The optics of Liberal defector David Van chumming-up with Tanya Plibersek after striking a deal with Labor will strike fear into the hearts of industry leaders and CEOs across the country.

Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek and independent Senator David Van speaking at Parliament House in Canberra on Tuesday after striking a deal.

The optics of Liberal defector David Van getting chummy with Tanya Plibersek after clinching a deal on water legislation will strike fear into the hearts of industry leaders and CEOs across the country.

Van has made clear that he is his own man after quitting the ­Liberal Party and is open to doing more deals with the Albanese ­government.

Despite his Liberal roots, the Victorian senator says: “I think people are only just starting to figure out that as an independent my vote has some weight now.”

With Jacqui Lambie and David Pocock holding out on Tony Burke’s Closing Loopholes industrial relations omnibus bill, Labor is hunting for the single Senate vote it needs to push the IR reforms through the upper house.

As industry leaders furiously lobby crossbenchers to block Labor’s IR overhaul when it returns for an expected Senate vote in February, Van has emerged as a wildcard in the pack despite his reservations about the workplace shake-up.

It’s not the first time a controversial Liberal defector has cosied-up to Labor.

Peter Slipper infamously quit the Liberal National Party to take-up the role of Speaker under the Gillard government. Controversial former Labor MP Craig Thomson, who quit the party amid rolling scandals, helped keep Julia Gillard in power from the crossbench.

There was great irony in Plibersek – a former Labor shadow minister for women – praising Van given the serious allegations that saw him quit the Liberal Party in scandal. The left-wing powerbroker praised Van for the “constructive way that he’s worked” in backing Labor’s Murray-Darling Basin plan.

In June, the 59-year-old resigned from the party that helped elect him to the Senate after Peter Dutton referred sexual harassment allegations to the Parliamentary Workplace Support Service.

There is no love lost between Van and Dutton, who was forced to act after two senior Liberal Party women including former minister Amanda Stoker joined Greens senator Lidia Thorpe in ­accusing Van of inappropriate conduct.

Standing alongside Plibersek on Tuesday after securing amendments in Labor’s Restoring Our Rivers bill, Van refused to discuss allegations levelled against him because the PWSS investigation is “ongoing and confidential”.

In an interview with The Australian, Van – who rejects all allegations made against him – dumped on the Liberal Party which “doesn't stand for what I ­believe anymore” and suggested he might run for the Senate when his six-year term is up in 2025.

“No one is saying I’m not going around again.”

Senior industry sources, who have held discussions with the ­Victorian senator, remain confident that Van will vote against the IR bill despite his bad blood with the Coalition.