Queensland Nationals member George Christensen told reporters yesterday that he has no plans to join Cory Bernardi’s new political party and remained loyal to his leader Barnaby Joyce.
The conservative MP said it was vital that the coalition retained it’s election promise to hold a plebiscite on the issue of marriage equality.
“If this government goes down the road of breaking its agreement with the people that we made that we were going to do to a plebiscite, then, you know, the show’s over,” Christensen said.
Christensen said Senator Bernardi’s impending decision to quit the government sent a clear signal that more conservative principles needed to be applied to decisions.
“Look, if there’s a move away, I suppose it sends a signal to the leadership that we cannot abandon conservative causes, conservative principles and conservative policies.” Christensen said.
“We’ve got to re-embrace them, reconnect with that part of our core constituency, and just do the job that we were elected to do and I think that, if we did that, there wouldn’t be breakaways.”
“We need to reconnect with our core constituency and with the people at large and I think that there’s moves afoot to do that.
“So I really do hope that we succeed in doing that because if we drift away any further, you know, it’s going to become untenable.”
This morning on ABC radio Chistensen said Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was still the best person to lead the government, and Australians didn’t want to see another Prime Minister replaced, but a decision to allow a free vote on marriage equality would cause him to consider if he would remain in the government.
OIP Staff
