For all the angst occasioned by Clive Palmer and his Senate campaign of disruption directed at the government, it’s not impossible that Palmer and other recalcitrant crossbenchers may be doing the Coalition a big favour.

In opposing many of the government’s punitive budget measures, and especially ones with a wide impact such as indexing the fuel excise and the new GP fee, the Senate may be helping to ensure the Coalition’s political survival.

In the Howard years, voters appeared content to return the Coalition to government while the Senate moderated many of its policies. While it wasn’t understood at the time — indeed, it was perceived as the crowning Howard victory — obtaining control of the Senate proved fatal to that government, since there was no one to stand in the way of WorkChoices, one of the most deeply unpopular policies of recent generations.

Fast forward, and this messy Senate may well be preventing the Abbott government from making the same mistake as the Howard government. True, it comes with a fiscal price, but there are few informed observers who seriously believe in the so-called “budget emergency”.

It may well be a price worth paying for the government if it ensures voters are prepared to return it to power in 2016, on the basis that there’s a Senate willing to moderate its enthusiasm for punitive economic policies. Clive Palmer used to be a strong supporter of the Coalition. Perhaps, in his way, he still is.