Cory Bernardi to split with Coalition to form own party (Australia - new Conservative Party)

ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) ^ | 6th February 2017 | Chris Uhlman, Stephanie Anderson, Jane Norman

[naturalman1975]

Liberal senator Cory Bernardi is set to split from the Coalition over coming days to form his own political party.

The ABC understands the South Australian senator will walk out of the Liberal Party within the next 48 hours.

Senator Bernardi has previously indicated he may start a new party for disenchanted conservative voters, with reports surfacing as early as mid-2016.

In July he called for voters to back his Australian Conservatives movement, citing the need for a "broad conservative movement to help change politics".

.....

The South Australian senator is a social conservative and economic liberal — he believes in small government, lower taxes and free trade, and thinks the Coalition has drifted from these values.

After the July election, Senator Bernardi lamented the fact that the Coalition had "bled" more than a million votes to conservative parties such as One Nation, and said at the time his party was neglecting its base.

The ABC understands he was frustrated that his party's leaders were too politically correct and refused to address cultural issues like the rise of Islam.

This is one of the key reasons he established Australian Conservatives to reconnect with and increase his base of supporters.

Since then, he's declared "there's never been a more exciting time to be a backbencher" and has led the charge to change the nation's racial discrimination laws, prompting the Prime Minister to establish a parliamentary inquiry, and forced the Government to rule out any form of carbon pricing ahead of a wider review.

Senator Bernardi has also become increasingly outspoken since the election of US President Donald Trump, who he vocally supported while staying in New York last year.

[naturalman1975]

The Liberal Party has been Australia's major conservative party since the 1940s but has always had a moderate 'centrist' section and the current leader of the party and Prime Minister, Malcolm Turnbull comes from that centrist part. Many Australian conservatives have real concerns that he and his cohorts are dragging the party further and further away from core conservative values. So this really isn't that surprising - especially as Turnbull is floundering and seems unable to unwilling to fight. People would have more respect for him if he at least stood up for the values he supposedly holds - but he's proving weak and incompetent.

If these reports are true and Senator Bernardi breaks with the Liberal Party, it will be interesting to see what happens. It could potentially bring down the government - the Liberal/National Coalition has a technical majority of only one in the House of Representatives and a working majority of five at absolute most - if Bernardi takes even a handful of the House members with him into his new party, that changes things dramatically. Although he might be willing to continue to give the Coalition support on confidence and supply and thus keep them in office, rather than risk handing it over to the socialists. Interesting times, however it goes.

[Ann Archy]

We have 2 groups of friends in Australia, and they have both tried to explain the differences in parties, and have told us WRONGO info!! Is Turnbull a Republican or a Democrat??

[marktwain]

I was reading the post, thinking, maybe I should ping Naturalman1975 on this...

Then I saw who posted it.

[naturalman1975]

Turnbull would probably be a Democrat in the US - he’s far enough left for that.

But he leads a party that is mostly more conservative than he is - he’s from the far left of the Liberal Party, which broadly speaking is a conservative party (it’s name was chosen before ‘Liberal’ became a term hijacked by the left - and relates to the classical liberal ideals of freedom of the past).

[Yo-Yo]

Is Turnbull a Republican or a Democrat??

I believe the closest U.S. analogy of Turnbull would be a McCain RINO.

[Ann Archy]

So Turnbull would be like a Mitch McConnell, Mitt Romney, John McCain etc?

[naturalman1975]

Yes, something along those lines.

[Oztrich Boy]

He's a Republican

Now you are no better informed

[Brian Allen]

To: Ann Archy .... Is Turnbull a Republican or a Democrat??
I believe the closest American comparison places Turnbull a McCain RINO ....

I’d say that’s close but Turnbull’s pathological narcissism has such a hold on him as to make him more similar to the every-bit-as-criminally-arrogant silly sookie, Sayyid Soetoro.

In Australia’s slightly less-recent past the as-eletist, as-imperialistic and absolutely-ideologically-identical (to Turnbull) Maoist traitor, Edward Gough Whitlam (who - effectively - was Australia’s “new-dealing” F D Roosevelt) comes closest.

Effective Big Government fascists, all.

[Yo-Yo]

Let us not forget how Malcolm became Prime Minister in the first place. He ousted Tony Abbott in another “midnight massacre” ala Julia Gillard vis a vis Kevin Rudd on the Labor side.