Saint Nick Xenophon of South Australia

Disillusionment with the two major political parties will be a key a factor in South Australia as the Federal election draws near.

In a clear case of state politics affecting Federal seats, the SA public will preference Senator Nick Xenophon - who has promised little and delivered the same - over the main state and Federal parties who have put the 'Nothingness' in Jean Paul Sartre's 'Being and Nothingness'.

South Australia is different. While most other states under the star spangled Union Jack have joined the 21^st century, and have long since buried the hatchet against each other (unless poked by News Corporation or the AFL/NRL), SA still suffers from a substantial insecurity complex.

In Adelaide we give praise to the farmers and lawyers who wrote one of the most boring constitutions in history, giving rise to the Federation, because without it, financially, we'd be up faecal creek without a paddle.

We pray every Sunday that the forces of globalisation don't destroy the arbitrary creation of economic and legal units we call Australian states. Because if they do, we're going to have to form a committee, create a couple of citizens' juries and write letters to The Advertiser. We'll actually have to do something beyond sucking 30 per cent of unearned monies from the GST horizontal equalisation formula.

In South Australia, Saint Nick is like Crusader Rabbit and the Ninja Turtles all rolled in to one (you won't read or hear a word said against him in SA – and I'll get to that too). He is political Teflon. He's a mate. Dinky Di. True blue and ridgy didge. And when it comes to media stunts, he is the master. I've seen senior journalists with 30 years' experience, melt under Senator Xenophon's charisma and style. He's the guru of the one liner, the quick gag.

Many years ago I was a senior media adviser for a pack of drongos who, after I left, thought it a good idea to destroy themselves and the party in public. As we were a Senate based party, each Senator had defined portfolios, some of which included white anting the other Senators. All good fun.

The point I'm making is that no one Senator can possibly have a position on everything. The reason is that people get in to politics because they're passionate about saving the whales, or digging up minerals or lining the pockets of mates in the Australian Industry Group or the Business Council of Australia. Believing in a just and fair Australia, as Xenophon does, is good but so does my Labrador and Pauline Hanson.

Speaking out on everything, from anti-free trade to helping (and failing) to stop residents of a caravan park being evicted, isn't possible, even working 24 hours a day. In the fast flowing stream of the 24-hour news cycle, you're just one bear snapping at salmon as they jump up stream. Xenophone is 20 bears. He's everywhere. Media omnipresence. That's why I call him Saint Nick.

Xenophon was elected to the South Australian Parliament in 1997 on a No Pokies platform. He went Federal in 2007, winning a whopping 14.8 per cent of the state's Senate primary vote.

His new federal party, the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), said it will fight the gambling lobby, fight for Australian jobs, products and services, introduce strong anti-dumping measures and institute tougher and more comprehensive whistleblower laws. It's all good stuff. He could write for the Byron Bay Echo. Snuggle up to Julian Assange. But he's also a warrior for the manufacturing sector – an AMWU king hitter. Really? Because he has absolutely no background in manufacturing or heavy industry. Nothing. Nada. Zip.

What Saint Nick represents is the rise of populism in Australian politics. He has modelled himself on Brian Harradine. I can't think of another politician that has turned back progressive thinking as much as Harradine. But he was popular. Like Billy Hughes' line on conscription was popular – for a while. Even so, Saint Nick voted for the failed Same Sex Marriage Act, which would have given Harradine a heart attack.

Xenophon has enemies. Everyone in the Liberal and Labor parties for starters. Nick is the underdog and in the land of the underdog (we're knee deep in dogs in SA), this is good news. Although the fact he is a Prince Alfred College Old Scholar and a graduate from the University of Adelaide Law School, makes him a well-groomed dog.

SA Federal Liberal MP Jamie Briggs said in the media recently that the problem with "personality cult parties is that you have no idea who or what you are really voting for." I'm sure the people who voted for Jamie think the same.

Even that old fox, John Howard has got in on the act. He recently said, "the major parties get an unfair rap when people are disgruntled with living standards because they are seen as being in some way responsible, because they actually are in office or have been in office. Whereas the other parties like Nick Xenophon's mob, they've never been in office and they're not likely to be in office and therefore they don't attract the same opprobrium."

Who would dare call the major parties responsible? The Liberals are scared. Another reason is that in a double-dissolution election, Xenophon's quota for winning a Senate seat is halved from 14.29 to 7.69 per cent.

Xenophon has had one Senate career win (sort of) - the Murray water buyback scheme, which the Federal ALP was going to pass any way. He held a gun to the head of the Rudd Government during the GFC crisis to get it, thereby endangering Australia's entire fiscal security but that's old news now.

Xenophon rode to success on the back of SA's media. It's hard to write cogently about SA's media without conjuring up more mixed metaphors, most of which have to do with excrement. Online newspaper InDaily (M-F), (which I contribute to) is doing well and the ABC, now run by a reporter and two kelpies, still manages to accurately report the news. If you're in the eastern states, let's just say the The Advertiser (News Corporation) makes the NT News look like The Washington Post. 'The Tiser' has some excellent reporters but the news agenda, driven by management, is 'truth' chemotherapy.

The rise of Saint Nick has fundamentally been supported – even lauded – by The Advertiser and its mates. No surprises there. It's like the craven coward at school who sides with the popular boy, hoping some of his popularity will rub off on him. But alas, the circulation figures and falling ad spends, still wait for him after school to punch his lights out.

But if Saint Nick has been chauffeured to the top by the public, the people who opened the door for him are the SA ALP and Liberals. A surfeit of lawyers, the lack of distinction between the two parties, ALP ministerial incompetence and the fact that the state is producing the SDP of Ethiopia, makes a career in state politics look enticing for anyone struck by intellectual poverty. Good money, good super and you don't need to do much as the bloated public service runs the show. In the land of the lowest common denominator, Saint Nick is golden.

It's all a bit of a laugh really, this democracy caper for Nick. It's the glib throwaway line; it's the gag, the stunt, the pie in the face, the Westminster system, the fart cushion; it's Punch and Judy; a combined unemployment and under employment level in SA of around 18 per cent; it's making policy on the run to fill the news gap; it's Reg Varney and 'On the Buses' meets representative democracy. 'Ullo, what's all this then Gov? The balance of power in the Senate?' But one can't help like him.