The Red Room Gets Redder

Today's a big day for the Australian punter, although most probably won't notice.

After four years of domination in the Senate, the Coalition has lost their majority. (That sound you hear is the collective sigh of relief from everyone with a social conscience).

It's also the first time in thirty years that the Democrats will have no Senate presence whatsoever. Although that probably won't be noticed by anyone.

It's not all small-l liberal flowers and gay-whale-loving, though. From today, the balance of power will be held by the Greens, Steve Fielding of Family First, and Independent Nick Xenophon. That'll lead to some interesting back-room discussions.

You can bet the Left will have had a bunch of stuff sitting on the backburner, waiting for the Right to leave the building as it were, so we can expect a minor flurry of legislative changes over the next couple of weeks.

Also today, those tax cuts discussed endlessly during last year's election will kick in.

Watch as K-Rudd takes credit for helping his "working families", Nelson points out that it was Coalition policy in the first place, and both actively avoid the question about what it'll do to inflation and interest rates.