Woke the kids up at 5am and we drove seven hours to Canberra in two cars. I nearly had to cancel my 3.15pm meeting with Tony Abbott after getting stuck behind slow-moving traffic on the Monaro Highway. Within 20 minutes of getting to Canberra I was changed into a suit and arrived two minutes late for the meeting. Tony Abbott was quite respectful in person.

Everyone in government wanted to talk about their vehicles. Abbott used to own an Austin 1800 and a Triumph - cars I would notice if I saw them on the road.

It didn't sink in until about two hours later that I'd just sat down with the Prime Minister of Australia.

Thursday/Friday

''Senator kindy'', as they call it, was a good opportunity time to meet other new senators, get to know Parliament House and learn more about the procedures of the Senate, which I have been reading up on since the election.

We were all newcomers and everyone got along well.

Monday

I'd waited nine months for the swearing-in ceremony. It was very much a moment of pride to have my family watching. There were no nerves at all.

My son Tristan, who is 19 months old, was calling out, ''Daddy, daddy.'' Absolutely gorgeous and a reminder of where I came from.

I met the Governor-General, Peter Cosgrove, after the ceremony. I said to the kids you better go back to mum, but he wanted the kids to come along and meet him.

Tuesday:

Met with Clive Palmer and PUP senators and talked about the future of the Australian Renewable Energy Agency.

ARENA hadn't been on Clive's agenda with Al Gore but he encouraged me to take up the issue to retain funding for research into renewables.

Wednesday

We were lobbying John Madigan and already had Nick Xenophon's support for my ARENA amendment until a deal was done with PUP that will save it from being abolished.

I voted against the government gagging debate on the carbon tax to buy some more time to push our amendment on ARENA.

Saving ARENA is something I'm extremely proud of. I didn't expect to achieve something so big in my first week.

Thursday

I was very happy to be part of everything that happened on Thursday, although some have called the Senate a circus.

I wanted to make sure the savings from getting rid of the carbon tax are definitely passed on to consumers and business.

We went down the path we had to.