Cory Bernardi, the conservative politician who left the Liberal party to form the short-lived Australian Conservative Party, is set to join One Nation.
For days Pauline Hanson and Barnaby Joyce have teased that a significant figure from the Liberal party was going to defect to One Nation, and yesterday it was revealed that Bernardi will run for the state upper house in South Australia at the next election.
One Nation currently has no representation in South Australia after Sarah Game quit the party and continued on as an independent. Bernardi is expected to make a formal announcement alongside Senator Hanson is Adelaide this morning.
Bernardi, a former financial adviser and stock broker, served in the senate representing South Australia for the Liberal party from 2006 when he filled a casual vacancy created by Senator Robert Hill being appointed as Australia’s ambassador to the United Nations.
During his time in parliament he called for a inquiry into swearing on television and was a vocal opponent of allowing marriage equality.
Under Prime Minister Tony Abbott Bernardi was appointed to several junior roles including being the Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate. He was forced to resign from those roles and return to the backbench after he claimed allowing marriage equality would lead to polyamory and bestiality.
In 2017 he resigned from the Liberal party and formed his own party Australian Conservatives, but the fledgling party had a poor showing at the 2019 election and the party was deregistered a few months later, and Bernardi resigned from his senate position.
After leaving politics Bernardi joined Sky News where he regularly made outlandish statements. When it made its debut in 2021 the hour long Bernardi show was touted as an opportunity for Bernardi to deliver “deep insight and his broad political experience” on important issues.
During the show’s run Bernardi also spent time discussing his childhood love of his Mr Potatohead toy and his concern about Netflix’s dating show Sexy Beasts. He complained about gay fashion from year’s gone by, and suggested students were identifying as cats.
The show was also where regular guest Liberal senator Alex Antic declared he wanted to “identify as an AFL star” and pledged to stop gender neutral markers on Australian passports, seemingly oblivious to the fact the Australia had already introduced world leading changes a decade earlier.
As he exited his program Bernardi had more to say about transgender youth, arguing that parents should be able to make decisions “for the continuation of their lineage.”
Bernardi’s move to One Nation comes as the party experiences its highest approval ratings of all time, out polling the former coalition parties, and some surveys showing leader Pauline Hanson is the most popular political leader in Australia.
