Bernardi Recruits Another MP; The Far Right In Australian Politics
Corey Bernardi has struck again. After amalgamating with Family First in April, he has lured another MP into his breakaway party, the Australian Conservatives. MP Dr Rachel Carling-Jenkins is set to defect to the ultra-right party, coinciding with Bernardi’s announcement that the Australian Conservatives have secured a membership base of over 10,000. This comes as One Nation is showing similar levels of growth, with the party holding 16% of the vote in recent polls, seemingly unaffected by the spate of scandal and independent investigations to plague the party. It’s pretty clear: the expansion of the ideologically Far right is here to stay. But why?
Following Christopher Pines leaked confessional on the imminence of getting gay marriage through parliament without a plebiscite, many traditional liberal voters have indicated they will be placing their preferences with the Australian Conservatives and One Nation at the next election, saying Liberal has become too left wing and the independent parties better represent their conservative values.
To extrapolate the political dynamics at play here, The Daily spoke with Steve Chavura, Political Theorist and Intellectual Historian at Macquarie University.
