Our future in Palmer's hands Australia has a buffoon now controlling a critical parcel of votes in the Senate: I hope Robert Gottliebsen's optimism is not misplaced: Tony Abbott and the Coalition have won effective control of the Senate and the government will be able to pass all its major legislative program. Australia is set to have its most stable government for a decade. The Coalition has 33 votes in the Senate but needs another six for a majority. The backroom people in the Coalition ... are bubbling with confidence that the six non-major party senators elected in this year's election will combine to back most of, if not all, the government's legislative program that was forecast in the campaign... There are two qualifications to this confident prediction. First, a number of people in the Coalition and the ALP want to change the electoral act so that the 2013 Senate outcome can never be repeated. The Coalition is tempted but it has received the message that if the Prime Minister went down that track and tried to amend the electoral act, it would be a declaration of war with the new senators. The Coalition now knows that it has to choose between new Senate rules and stable government for three years, with the clear implementation of its program. The second qualification is that the Abbott government must not be captured by the "big end of town" and deviate from its 12-point plan.