Australian voters have spent years trying to get a message to the two major parties: lift your game.

Now they are sending that message to the minor players who present themselves as the “outsiders” who can do better than Labor and the Liberals.

The Greens had a golden opportunity on Saturday to secure a second seat in the House of Representatives but their defeat in Batman will set them back years.

In South Australia, Nick Xenophon was spoken of only weeks ago as a shock contender to be premier but he finishes with no office at all. He is out of Parliament at a state and federal level.

And Liberal defector Cory Bernardi got just 3.5 per cent of the primary vote for his Australian Conservatives party in the upper house in his home state. As Liberal pollster Mark Textor quipped: “Where are all those millions of Bolt Sky News viewers?”