Australian Conservatives
The Australian Conservatives was formed in July 2016 as a conservative political activist group in Australia and as a political party in February 2017. It was led by Cory Bernardi, who had been elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party, but resigned citing disagreements with the Liberal/National Coalition, its policies and leadership under Malcolm Turnbull.
Australian Conservatives | |
|---|---|
| Leader | Cory Bernardi |
| Founder | Cory Bernardi |
| Founded | 7 February 2017 |
| Dissolved | 25 June 2019 |
| Split from | Liberal Party |
| Headquarters | King William Street, Kent Town, South Australia 5067 |
| Membership (2017) | 22,000 |
| Ideology | |
| Political position | Right-wing |
| Colours | Light blue |
| Slogan | ...a better way |
| House of Representatives | 0 / 151 (2017–2019) |
| Senate | 1 / 76 (2017–2019) |
| SA Legislative Council | 2 / 22 (2017–2018) |
| Victorian Legislative Council | 1 / 40 (2017–2018) |
| This article is part of a series on |
| Conservatism in Australia |
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The Family First Party and its two state parliamentarians, Dennis Hood and Robert Brokenshire, joined and merged with the Australian Conservatives in April 2017. Brokenshire was not re-elected at the 2018 state election; Hood left the Conservatives to join the Liberal Party on 26 March 2018, leaving Bernardi as the sole remaining member in federal parliament, whose present term in the senate ran until 30 June 2022. In September 2017, the leaders of the Victorian branch of the Australian Christians agreed to merge the Victorian branch with the Conservatives.
On 20 June 2019, Bernardi announced that he would deregister the party following the re-election of the Coalition Morrison government at the 2019 Australian federal election, citing a lack of political success and poor financial position. The party was deregistered on 25 June 2019.