Senator laments sidelined crossbench

Obstruction by a few crossbenchers has pushed the government to strike more deals with Labor and the Greens, says Liberal Democrats senator David Leyonhjelm.

Senator Leyonhjelm said crossbenchers had helped make the Senate a "house of review, not a bipartisan shouting match" in 2015.

However, the eight-member crossbench had been "at times very negative" and made a lot of wrong calls.

"Some crossbench members tend to be obstructive to the government, irrespective of the issue," he told AAP on Monday.

"I think that's a shame."

The crossbench comprises Senator Leyonhjelm, four independents, Family First's Bob Day and Palmer United Party's Dio Wang.

Senator Leyonhjelm said the government had worked a lot more closely with Labor and the Greens this year.

"They've taken the view that something is better than nothing and struck deals with Labor and the Greens."

Figures produced by Hawker Britton showed at the end of the 2015 winter session, 40 per cent of the government's parliamentary victories had come at the hands of Labor and 28 per cent with the backing of crossbenchers.

In the same period a year earlier, the figure was 30 per cent with Labor and 34 per cent with the crossbench.

Senator Leyonhjelm said the coalition's approach to negotiation was much better now than earlier in the term.

"In the beginning the Abbott government's position was: `We are the government, you should support it, there's nothing to discuss' - now everything is negotiable," the NSW senator said.