Bob Day strode into the High Court optimistic but a bit anxious about his legal challenge to the way Australians will elect senators on July 2.
A little later, he emerged with as brave a face as is possible in defeat.
In the space of a few minutes, High Court judges published their unanimous decision that could end his political career and that of other crossbenchers.
Standing with another threatened upper house species - Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm - Senator Day insisted his challenge was a matter of principle.
"We all know the famous story of Darryl Kerrigan and The Castle and the High Court defended his house," he told reporters in Canberra on Friday.
"We were asking the High Court to defend his vote."
Senator Day said three million Australians people voted for candidates outside the major parties.
"What did they do about it - they came up with a new system to punish them for doing that," he said.
Senator Day urged voters to give their vote to minor parties or independents, not big parties, and to fill out as many boxes as possible above or below the line.
Senator Leyonhjelm said as incumbent parliamentarians he and Senator Day could be re-elected, though that wasn't guaranteed.
"Anybody who doesn't have incumbency or doesn't have $20 million to spend like Clive (Palmer) did, they are never going to succeed," he said.
The hurdle of getting elected to the Senate would be so high that it was anti-democratic, he said.
The government, with support from the Greens, pushed the changes through parliament in March.
The aim is to limit the prospects of micro-party candidates with tiny first preference votes winning office through tactical preference-swapping deals.
At the 2013 election, Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party candidate Ricky Muir was elected with a record-low number of first preference votes - 17,122 - just 0.51 per cent of votes cast in Victoria.
In his challenge, Senator Day argued the changes were unconstitutional, discriminated against minor parties and independents, and disenfranchised the voters.
High Court judges disagreed, ruling there was no infringement of the implied freedom of political communication or the system of representative government.
Senator Day and seven others who launched a parallel challenge now have to pay the legal costs of the case, likely thousands of dollars.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, campaigning in Adelaide, wasn't surprised by the judgment.
"The High Court's decision is entirely as expected," he told reporters.
Labor strongly opposed the changes and Opposition Leader Bill Shorten, campaigning in Sydney, was unimpressed.
"I think the outcome there is about as surprising as real estate agents losing their negative gearing taxpayer-funded subsidies," he told reporters.
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