Family First Senator Steve Fielding may have swept into office with Liberal preferences six years ago but that hasn't stopped him blocking the Coalition's carbon tax plebiscite bill - with just one week of his term left to run.
The Victorian senator, who loses his balance of power position when the Senate changes over on July 1, this week sided with the government to prevent debate on the plebiscite bill.
The opposition's senate leader Eric Abetz, speaking before the vote, said family budgets would be "destroyed" if Senator Fielding did not allow the public a say on the planned carbon tax.
"He will be complicit in every job lost. He will be complicit in supporting the Greens-Labor deal. He will be complicit in denying Australians a voice on the carbon tax," Senator Abetz said of Senator Fielding's intention to vote with Labor.
"He will be the author of his own political epitaph."
And perhaps that's just the way Senator Fielding, acting unexpectedly to the last. Having failed to gain the preference deals he need for a second term in the Senate, he has made sure his departure was not overlooked
Senator Fielding, a fierce critic of action on climate change, said he would not support the opposition's "political stunt" saying it would waste millions of taxpayer dollars for nothing.
"This is nothing more than a political stunt and I don't back it," he said.
In an ironic twist, fellow balance of power senator Nick Xenophon sided with the opposition, saying he believed the people should have their say.
Interestingly, incoming Victorian DLP Senator, John Madigan, who shares many of Fielding's Christian views and as good as took Fielding's sixth Senate spot, would almost certainly have voted in favour of the plebiscite.
More coverage in The Australian.
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