I recall Senators Brian Harridine (independent) and Malcolm Colson (a Labor 'rat' turned independent) being similarly used by Mr Howard to get VERY controversial legislation through Parliament in the 1990s.
Although I detest what Oakeshott and Windsor are up to, one cannot denounce Labor for using these opportunists to further their ends; that's just politics.
Hwever I do have a great deal of time for Senator Xenophon's agenda to return SOME common sense to the rampant gambling that has become as serious a problem as alocholism in this country. (Sorry, we are enjoined to use the euphemism "gaming" so that losing one's home, family and life may be playfully viewed as a "game").
Labor has done NOTHING to curb this menace, in fact, just the opposite.
I recall Brumby recently granting Packer a huge increase the number of gaming tables at the Crown Casino in Melbourne. Thankfully he removed his duplicitous, unelected carcass from the political scene today.
If Oakeshott and Windsor join Wilkie and Xenophon (not to mention the Rev Tim Costello) to rein in this damned disease then they just MIGHT lose some of the odour of disrepute that they have accumulated so far by backing Gillard's obscene parody of a government.
