Tony Abbott called them "feral".
Paul Keating described them as "unrepresentative swill".
But the new batch of senators starting on July 1 should be more open to talks with the Morrison government.
As counting continues after Saturday's election, it appears the Liberal-National coalition will need the backing of five out of six conservative crossbenchers to get its legislation through parliament.
The coalition's Senate numbers could rise from 31 to 34 out of 76 seats.
Deputy leader of the government in the Senate, Simon Birmingham, said it had been a strong result for the coalition.
"This is a government that legislated against the odds ... and we will now work with the Senate that we're given, including the new crossbench, to make sure that we get their support for the agenda the Australian people have endorsed," Senator Birmingham said.
Three familiar faces look likely to re-join the Senate after being knocked out by the dual citizenship debacle that plagued the previous parliament.
Labor's Katy Gallagher, One Nation's Malcolm Roberts in Queensland and Jacqui Lambie in Tasmania are set to be returned to the red chamber.
Ten sitting senators are on the way out, including Lisa Singh and Gavin Marshall (Labor), Ian Macdonald, Jim Molan, Lucy Gichuhi (Liberals), Steve Martin (Nationals), Peter Georgiou (One Nation), Derryn Hinch (Justice Party), Fraser Anning (Conservative Nationals) and Duncan Spender (Liberal Democrats).
Centre Alliance's Skye Kakoschke-Moore, who left parliament in the dual-citizenship scandal, also failed to win back her seat in South Australia.
The Greens appear to have won a Senate seat in every state, keeping the minor party's numbers at nine.
The current non-Greens crossbench is expected to be cut from 10 to six.
Labor won a net 13 seats.
Tens of millions of dollars Clive Palmer spent advertising his United Australia Party don't seem to have paid off, failing to translate into winning any seats.
In Tasmania, the Liberals and Labor look set to hold two seats each and Greens incumbent Nick McKim to return.
The coalition is likely to retain three seats in both NSW and Victoria and Labor another two, with the Greens probably taking the final seat in each state.
It's a similar story in South Australia, where the major parties will take two seats each and the Greens' Sarah Hanson-Young will hold on, with the final seat probably also going to the Liberals.
And in the two territories, ACT and NT, the status quo will prevail with Labor and the Liberals taking one seat each.
