Nick Xenophon on launching a political party

At the start of a frenetic year for independent Nick Xenophon, the South Australian senator tells Michelle Grattan his new national political party, the Nick Xenophon Team (NXT), will fill a vacuum.

“People want a genuine choice from the political centre. I think they’re sick of the left and right skirmishes we see in politics - the red team, blue team approach where even if one side acknowledges that the other side has a good idea, it needs to tear it down,” he says.

Xenophon talks about the preselection process for his candidates, the difficulty of operating on a “dental floss budget”, and his views on how to create a fairer senate voting system.