CANBERRA can be a cold place at the best of times, but one senator had a very frosty reaction to an idea he put forward in Parliament House today.

Liberal Democratic Party senator David Leyonhjelm moved a bill this morning to cut Family Tax Benefit A to people earning more than $90,000 a year.

To put it mildly, the move struggled to find support with literally every representative but Senator Leyonhjelm voting against it.

That’s 45 votes to one.

Senator @DavidLeyonhjelm moved a bill to reduce middle-class welfare, and this is what happened #auspol pic.twitter.com/erPYKLU9eP — Helen Dale (@_HelenDale) December 4, 2014

Senator Leyonhjelm’s spokesman Gavin Atkins said the bill was designed to make a point about middle-class welfare, which he called an “election bribe” invented by former Liberal prime minister John Howard.

“You could call it a stunt but we were serious in making a point about who would support cutting middle-class welfare and who would not,” Mr Atkins told news.com.au.

“We are a low-tax party and we are fundamentally against using taxpayers’ money in this way.

“It’s taking money off people, skimming off the top and giving it back to them — but then pretending you’re a hero.”

Well, if nothing else, on the last day of Parliament for the year, voting this down was something the Liberals, Labor, Greens and Palmer United Party could all agree on.

Merry Christmas, everyone.