Hinch, Lambie Senate certainties: Credlin

Tony Abbott's former chief of staff reckons Derryn Hinch is a near certainty for election to the Senate while Tasmanian independent Jacqui Lambie could be back with a running mate.

Peta Credlin said she was hearing from a number of people close to the Tasmanian campaign that Senator Lambie could win two quotas.

Ms Credlin said Mr Hinch could be pretty confident of a win, while NSW Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm was a possibility, as was Pauline Hanson and Glen Lazarus in Queensland.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon and two running mates could expect to be elected in South Australia. Western Australia would stick with the major parties, she said.

"This will be Malcolm's problem," she said on the Sky program of Andrew Bolt, who suggested this would be like the "bar scene from Star Wars" running the country.

Ms Credlin said Mr Turnbull would be elected but would then have to deal with all the budget issues not yet passed through the Senate, plus difficult issues like the indigenous referendum, same-sex marriage, the deficit and global uncertainty.

She said every issue the government sought to negotiate through the Senate would come with a dollar cost and produce bigger government.

"This will be a very tough term for the government," she said.