There will be a handful of new faces and some empty seats when the Senate returns for its first week after the federal election.
The upper house agenda next week will be a largely ceremonial affair and no legislation will be debated.
NSW ALP boss Sam Dastyari will fill the spot left by Matt Thistlethwaite, who moved to the lower house.
Olympian Nova Peris will also start her term as a Labor Senator for the Northern Territory after being named former prime minister Julia Gillard's "captain's pick" to takeover from ousted long-serving senator Trish Crossin.
Ms Peris becomes the first indigenous woman elected to federal parliament and federal Labor's first Aboriginal parliamentarian.
There's another first for Labor. Mehmet Tillem will become the first Turkish-born Australian member of parliament when he joins the opposition benches to replace David Feeney, who has also moved to the House of Representatives.
Former ACT Liberal opposition leader Zed Seselja is another Senate newbie after winning a bitter party pre-selection battle over Gary Humphries to take the top spot on the ACT Liberal ticket.
Meanwhile, former Labor foreign minister Bob Carr's replacement, Deb O'Neill, is waiting for the NSW Parliament to endorse her for the casual vacancy.
State parliament is expected to have a joint sitting on November 14 to sign off on the nomination.
This means Ms O'Neill will miss the first sitting week of the new parliament from November 12.
Former Nationals senator Barnaby Joyce, who's moved to the lower house, is being replaced by Barry O'Sullivan - and he could wait longer than Ms O'Neill to take up his new gig.
Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has delayed a decision to endorse the incoming senator until early next year because he's subject to a state Crime and Misconduct Commission (CMC) investigation.
The CMC is investigating whether Liberal National Party officials, including Mr O'Sullivan, offered an inducement to Queensland MP Bruce Flegg to resign from his state seat of Moggill to make way for Mr Newman in 2011.
After Tuesday's ceremony and Wednesday's question time, Thursday's sitting is shaping up to be a bit of a bunfight.
AAP understands the government will attempt to change standing orders to scrap private members' time from the Senate program.
In the previous parliament, several hours on Thursday mornings were devoted to the debate of private members' bills.
The move is likely to be rejected because the government does not have the numbers in the chamber.
While there won't be much action in the chamber next week, behind the scenes government senators will be scrambling to finalise committee memberships ahead of Senate Estimates hearings the following week.
The process is apparently taking some time as the new government tries to ensure it's got the right coalition senators in place.
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