Hello from the other side … Senator David Leyonhjelm is waiting on a call from the PM.

The upbeat tune chosen by the cranky crossbencher is a not-so-subtle message to Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull: “Why don’t you give me a call?”

As his office said in a statement which announced the song of the day: “So, apparently Bob Day is the only crossbencher Malcolm Turnbull has called. Malcolm must be really sweating this ABCC thing, right?”

It was a warning, from a senator feeling unappreciated, that if non-aligned senators were to be talked into backing the government’s Australian Building and Construction Commission it would have to be one by one.

Mr Turnbull wants the independent and micro-party senators to come to a consensus on ways to pass the ABCC legislation — which aims to crush union corruption — against opposition from Labor and the Greens.

If it doesn’t get through, he will call a double-dissolution election.

Mr Turnbull yesterday spoke to Senator Bob Day, one of the eight crossbenchers, in the hope he could organise a united front of at least six of the eight on passing the ABCC bill.

In effect, he was asking the crossbench senators to be active participants in legislation through proposed amendments, rather than remain passive observers of its creation.

“If Bob can present six senators who are prepared to support the legislation, and if the amendments they propose are ones that are consistent with the purpose and intent of the bill and don’t weaken it, we would consider them,” the Prime Minister said.

This didn’t impress David Leyonhjelm, who doesn’t like the idea of the crossbench operating like a single entity. He wants to be courted individually.

“We’re not a party, the crossbench is not a party; we’re very, very, very varied,” the Liberal Democrat senator said on what he called a “silly idea”.

“On one end of the spectrum, we’ve got Bob who supports the government the vast majority of the time.

“At the other end of the spectrum we’ve got someone like Glenn Lazarus, who supports Labor and the Greens the vast majority of the time.”

As the Blondie song says, Senator Leyonhjelm is Hanging on the Telephone.