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.
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.
History
Activist group
The Australian Conservatives were established by Senator Bernardi as a conservative political activist group on 6 July 2016. The group was announced by Bernardi on his personal blog as a conservative "movement" to "help change politics and to give common sense a united voice". Bernardi cited the results of the 2016 federal election as a motivator for the group's establishment, stating that "over 1.7m votes were cast for right-of-centre or conservative parties rather than the Liberals", and that "the clear mission now is to bring people together for the good of the country." Despite contemporary media speculation when he created the group, following numerous public expressions of disappointment towards the Liberals, its policies, and leader Malcolm Turnbull, he stated that its establishment did not signal any breakaway from the Liberals, of which he was a senator, and that its intent was to "make the Liberals stronger". Within a month, the group's online newsletter reached over 50,000 subscribers.
Queensland Liberal National Party MP George Christensen was one of the first Coalition members of Parliament to support Bernardi and the Australian Conservatives, following his shared dissatisfaction with the election results. Despite this, Bernardi hinted otherwise in the months following, often going against Coalition policy and criticising the government, in particular over the Racial Discrimination Act debate, especially 18C. In late December 2016, Bernardi held controversial meetings with members of the United States presidential campaign of Donald Trump, allegedly in preparation for forming a breakaway party after continued dissatisfaction with the party and its policies, While he refrained from commenting on renewed speculation that he would split, he was met with negative reception from fellow party colleagues, including former Prime Minister and Liberal leader Tony Abbott.
Party foundation
On 7 February 2017, Bernardi announced his resignation from the Liberals through a speech in the Senate, opting to advance the Australian Conservatives as a political party, and sit on the Senate crossbench as its leader. In his speech, Bernardi claimed that "the level of public disenchantment with the major parties, the lack of confidence in our political process and the concern about the direction of our nation is very, very strong," and rationalised the creation of the Conservatives as a political party with the "need to find a better way". Bernardi also cited the resurgence and rise of conservative parties such as Pauline Hanson's One Nation as proof of such. Although dissatisfaction with the leadership of the Coalition was still shared by many in Parliament, numerous members have since denied any intention to join the Australian Conservatives, with most of them strongly criticising Bernardi—some described his move as a "betrayal". Tony Pasin, in particular, described Bernardi's move as unsurprising, "given the way that conservatives from South Australia are treated by the leadership of the Liberals".