Mixed messages on Bernardi quit talk
Senator Bob Day would welcome Liberal Senator Cory Bernardi into Family First “with open arms”, but says the South Australian has a vital influence in the Liberal Party.
Bernardi has refused to comment on speculation he may quit the Liberal Party following Malcolm Turnbull’s ascension to the prime ministership.
Day, a South Australian Family First senator with close links to Bernardi, told InDaily in a statement this morning that, “whilst Family First would obviously welcome Senator Bernardi with open arms, he is serving a very important purpose as the conscience of the Liberal Party”.
“I have had a long association with a good many members of the Liberal Party and we regularly talk about the many matters upon which we agree.
“Many people are telling us that Family First serves a vital purpose in moving motions, bills, amendments et cetera which many conservatives in the Coalition would agree, including Liberals like Senator Cory Bernardi.”
A spokesperson for Bernardi told InDaily this morning that the Senator would not comment on speculation that he was considering quitting the Liberal Party.
Bernardi reportedly told supporters of deposed former prime minister Tony Abbott in an email that ditching a first-term prime minister showed the party had been “sucked into the same vortex of poll-driven opportunism and ‘whatever it takes’ mentality that afflicts the Labor Party”.
“Frankly, I thought we were better than that,” Bernardi said.
“Abbott suffered the treachery and disloyalty that seems to be the stock in trade of the politically ambitious and in the end, paid the ultimate political price.”
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On Network Ten’s The Project last night, conservative columnist Andrew Bolt raised the possibility of Bernardi starting a new right-wing party.
Bernardi and Turnbull represent opposing ends of the conservative-progressive political spectrum within the Liberal Party.
– with AAP
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