Malcolm Turnbull has sought to calm the crossbenchers over the prospect of changes to the Senate voting system, saying the government had “no specific plans” for an overhaul.
The new special minister of state, Mal Brough, attracted criticism from the Senate crossbenchers – who are critical to the government’s hopes of passing contentious legislation – for indicating he wanted to pass legislation before the next election to stop micro-parties from “harvesting preferences”.
Brough started to walk back from the suggestions on Tuesday afternoon, telling Guardian Australia he was “not wedded to any particular set of reforms” and the crossbench “shouldn’t fear me”.
And on Wednesday, Turnbull tried to soothe the nerves of crossbench senators, including David Leyonhjelm, who had described the idea as a “brain fart”, and Ricky Muir, who had objected to the major parties’ “power grab”.
“We have no specific plans,” the prime minister told Sky News.
“I enjoy a very good working relationship with the Senate crossbenchers and also have reached out to the leader of the Greens, Richard Di Natale, so we want to have a good relationship.”
He said Muir – who was elected to the Senate after his Australian Motoring Enthusiasts party received just 0.51% of the primary vote in Victoria in 2013 – was just “as democratically” elected as Turnbull had been as the MP for Wentworth.
The prime minister added: “The fact is we do not have a specific proposal, but we are talking about it with all the other parties.”
In mid-2014, parliament’s joint standing committee on electoral matters presented the government with a blueprint for changes to address what it described as micro-parties “gaming” the Senate voting system and “distorting the will of voters” through elaborate preference deals.
The committee, chaired by Tony Smith before he became the Speaker of the House of Representatives, recommended the abolition of group voting tickets, the introduction of optional preferential voting “above the line” of Senate ballot papers, and tougher rules for party registration.
The Greens broadly support such changes but Labor is divided on the issue. While the support of the Greens could give the Coalition the numbers in the Senate to pass legislation, governments have typically sought bipartisan support for major electoral law changes.
The pursuit of the issue could also anger the crossbench senators, who are crucial to the government’s hope of passing other legislation. Any bill opposed by Labor and the Greens requires support from at least six of the eight crossbenchers to pass the upper house.
Turnbull called all eight crossbench senators after he challenged for the Liberal leadership last week and is arranging meetings with them over the next few weeks.
As revealed by Guardian Australia, Tony Abbott’s ministers started private informal consultations about highly sensitive changes to electoral laws in March.
Parliamentarians said the former special minister of state, Michael Ronaldson, had told them he had drafted changes – in line with the bipartisan Senate committee report – but that the bills were being held up in the former prime minister’s office.
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