“That’s the story of my life. I get a low number of third preferences, but everyone – or a lot of people at least – like me second best.”

So a primary vote of just 3 per cent was enough to get him back in the senate.

The Liberals, Shooters and Fishers, Liberal Democrats and the Christian Democrats all gave him their second preferences.

Day is back but the only other ‘Christian’ party Senator, John Madigan from Victoria, who originally got elected from the Democratic Labour Party will not be back. None of the extensive lists of candidates that stood for Family First, Christian Democrats, Australian Christians or Rise Up Australia got anywhere.

If they all featured in a season of Survivor, Bob Day is definitely the winner.

Day will continue to push his conservative line – he is both a social conservative like the other Christian parties, but an economic conservative as well.

He told Eternity that he is for “Family businesses, family farms and every family with a job and a house.”

He believes that the new Senate cross bench will be more socially conservative.

“But we’ll have to wait and see. You’ll only get to see how people act when they get there.”

In NSW, the Christian Democrats (CDP) celebrated “narrowly missing out” on the senate in a statement by Greg Bondar, their National Director. The CDP achieved its best ever federal election results.

It is worth noting that if all the ‘Christian’ parties had tightly preferenced each other in NSW they would have more votes than One Nation or the Liberal Democrats, both of which elected a Senator. This is due to a particularly strong CDP vote in that state due probably to the high recognition of the name Fred Nile – their long serving state upper house member. There may not have been a strong enough ‘Christian’ party vote in the other states to have produced that possibility.