THE Senate has lost one of its biggest characters in Victoria’s John Madigan.
That’s what Benjeroop hay and sheep farmer Lindsay Schultz, who was “mad about Madigan”, believes after Mr Madigan’s bid for re-election as an independent failed.
Mr Madigan, who arrived in the Senate in 2010 with the Democratic Labour Party, was a familiar face in the Swan Hill region, often working behind the scenes on issues he said go under the radar.
“Under the Murray-Darling Basin, South Australia’s Nick Xenophon is getting the water, Bob Katter has the dams in Queensland and we have nothing,” Mr Schultz said.
“We now have no representation in the southern part of the Murray-Darling Basin. What we had in Madigan was someone who was dedicated to this whole area.”
Mr Schultz said Mr Madigan’s greatest legacy was “battling for the average, struggling farmer”.
“The Basin inquiry that he fought to set up is now dead in the water. Malcolm Turnbull has probably already thrown it out,” he said.
For more on this story, grab a copy of Friday’s Guardian (July 15).
