Analysis: Cory Bernardi’s real aim is to make himself redundant
ANALYSIS: Senator Cory Bernardi says he has a bigger dream than the balance of power in the Senate. He wants to be made redundant, writes Tory Shepherd.
- THE FALLOUT: Cory quits — but what about SA election?
- THE REACTION: Furious Libs blast Bernardi’s move
- THE DECISION: Reluctant and relieved, Bernardi quits Libs
- IN-DEPTH: Life of a renegade Senator
AS his colleagues called on him to resign from his job, Senator Cory Bernardi said he’d like nothing better than to be made redundant.
After Senator Bernardi threw a hand grenade on the first day of Parliament on Tuesday — quitting the Liberal Party to form the Australian Conservatives party — senior Coalition MPs said he should give up his Senate seat altogether.
Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull, in a phone call to Senator Bernardi, asked him to justify quitting the party within months of securing a six-year term. Mr Turnbull said he had no answer, although later Senator Bernardi told a press conference that he still reflected Liberal values but the poor showing at the election left him with no choice.
So he won’t give up that precious crossbench Senate seat. But he told The Advertiser he has a bigger dream.
It’s not winning the balance of power in the upper house at the March state election.
It’s not even to be a clarion call for more disaffected conservatives within the Federal Liberal Party.
It’s to become superfluous.
“My dream is that I make myself absolutely redundant, because the major political parties will adhere to principles and start espousing things that will win back the confidence of the Australian people,” he said.
“I’ll be gloriously fulfilled and I’ll go fishing at Coffin Bay.”
“I asked him how he could justify remaining in the Senate having been elected as a Liberal only seven months ago. He could not answer that question,” Mr Turnbull had said earlier.
SA’s own Christopher Pyne, Defence Industry Minister and a senior moderate, tweeted that being elected as a Liberal then sitting as an independent was not going to restore faith in politicians.
“If Bernardi really wants to restore faith in politics, he must resign and recontest as an independent, otherwise it’s all hot air,” he said.