A Few Cross Crossbenchers

I seldom give the Parliament much thought anymore, but I've been transfixed by the goings on this past fortnight.

It may look boring to many, but watching a few of the players and how the machinations work up there and decoding what's really going on can be fascinating.

While this week, the Coalition lived up to every expectation of disappointment, the real action took place in the Senate.

Now, the Senate has always had a handful of grandstanders and misfits. Some do good work, but others are as useful as a two-legged stool.

One person who is very useful is Senator Pauline Hanson.

Like all politicians, you don't have to agree with everything she says or does to respect her efforts to raise important issues.

She's been trying to do that concerning the dual citizenship of former Labor Senator Fatima Payman.

Payman admits to being a dual citizen. She was born in Afghanistan and has not formally renounced that citizenship.

She claims to have tried to do so but was unable to because of the Taliban.

There's scant evidence of that, but Payman insists it is true.

Hanson wants clarity given the nature of previous High Court findings, and she sought to table documents in the Senate supporting her concerns.

The Coalition backed her, not because they agreed with her concerns, but because they thought the process was correct.

Labor claimed the same, but their motivation was to rid themselves of their former comrade and replace her with a more committed automaton.

Senator Lambie, who had her own battle with Section 44, voted to support the tabling too.

Lambie's position is interesting because she also claimed to have checked her dual citizenship status.