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Cory Bernardi announces defection, saying body politic is 'failing' Australia – politics live
Cory Bernardi: 'Every Liberal voter knew what they were getting' – politics live
(35 minutes later)
2.08am GMT
2.44am GMT
02:08
02:44
Cory Bernardi is answering questions outside the chamber now and answers the key question about why he did not resign before the election.
In the party room, at the news of the death of the gold pass, I’m told one MP joked “we will all have to get corporate sponsorship”.
I have reflected Liberal values since I joined theLiberal Party over 30 years ago. My sincere hopes the last election would deliver a positive outcome for the people of Australia. But what we saw was a million votes left the conservative party and went to alternatives. Some of them represent the national interests better than others. My ambition was always to bring those people back into the tent. I regret over the last seven months or so we see more of them leaving the tent. That says to me there is a serious problem. Now, I want to give them a principled, credible and stable alternative in which they can invest their vote in the Senate.
2.41am GMT
2.05am GMT
02:41
02:05
Ex-politicians gold pass is abolished and independent authority bill revealed
Senator Derryn Hinch:
Special minister of state Scott Ryan is speaking to the government’s announcement:
To hear him talk about principle when he has stood as a Liberal candidate and been elected as such is a joke. Three-hundred thousand people in South Australia, I feel sorry for them, they voted for a Liberal senator for six years. Below the line senator Bernardi got something like 2,000 votes and yet he stands up here and talks about principle.
Cutting the parliamentarians gold pass
establishing an independent authority to oversee politicians expenses.
The Independent Parliamentary Expenses Authority (IPEA) bill will be introduced in the house this week.
IPEA will have the core functions of auditing and reporting of parliamentarians’ work expenses. It will also have a specific focus on the administration and compliance of travel and related claims from parliamentarians, including ministers, and their staff. This will ensure that taxpayer’ funds are spent appropriately and in compliance with the rules. IPEA will operate as an independent statutory body.
The government will also introduce the Parliamentary Entitlements Legislation Amendment Bill to abolish the life gold pass for eligible former parliamentarians, apart from former prime ministers and their spouses.
This legislation means that the gold pass is dumped immediately rather than the previous phased proposal.
We have the opportunity to show Australians that the current generation of parliamentarians will subject themselves to higher standards than ever before.
The gold pass will remain for ex-prime ministers but Turnbull has made it clear he will not use it.
2.33am GMT
02:33
Q: Don’t you need to appeal to people outside of your narrow far right constituency?
Bernardi:
There is a pejorative sort of characterisation. This is the difficulty that we have. We have a case where the political class is held in very low regard because of what they say, what they failed to do and what they do do. We don’t need that to be compounded in elements of the media.
2.32am GMT
02:32
Bernardi says he cannot identify the last straw that broke the camel’s back.
He goes to the US election and urges people to look past Trump’s personality.
I don’t want you to confuse the personalities of the individuals involved with the policy outcomes. What the Republican candidate took to their election was the fact that they wanted to cut taxes, deregulate the economy, make sure their borders were secure and that their trade policy would be acting in their interests, not in anyone else’s. They are mainstream concerns and added to why they are so demonised by those who chose not to get past his personality and look at what he was putting forward.
2.28am GMT
02:28
Bernardi has been criticised for not telling his party room directly. He says he did not go to the party room meeting because he was no longer a member.
2.26am GMT
02:26
Bernardi won’t criticise his conservative colleagues. He won’t answer a question about whether he would rule out rejoining the Liberal party.
2.24am GMT
02:24
Bernardi on how he will be different to One Nation:
I have the utmost respect for her, she is tenacious. This is about Australian Conservatives though. This is about applying principles which will be enshrined in all our documents and asking people if you want to come and join us because we will take a principled approach to all policy, rather than just chasing any manner of headline, assess policy on what is in the best term for the national interests. That is my goal.
2.22am GMT
02:22
Bernardi says he had no intention of breaking away from the Liberal party at the time of the election.
2.18am GMT
02:18
Cory Bernardi says he has no idea whether Gina Rinehart will fund his campaign.
He avoids a question over whether he will apologise to Liberal voters.
Q: Isn’t it true only 2,000 voted for you below the line. Haven’t you betrayed those voters?
Every single Liberal party voter and those party members knew exactly what they were supporting. My principles have not changed. My advocacy has not changed.
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at 2.07am GMT
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2.03am GMT
2.15am GMT
02:03
02:15
Richard Di Natale:
Bernardi: if the government puts forward good policy, I will support them
Here is a very clear message in this for prime minister Turnbull – you don’t negotiate with extremists. You do not negotiate with extremists because it doesn’t matter how much you give them, they always want more.
Bernardi hopes to run candidates at the next election. He does not outline his funding plan but says he received 700 donations at the last election.
It is never enough. It is never enough! You look at the capitulation that we have seen from this prime minister on issues that he believed were issues of substance.
On dealing with the government:
Remember this was the prime minister who said he would never lead a party that wasn’t as committed to climate change as he is. We have him several days ago spruiking clean coal straight out of the Senator Bernardi manual of conservative politics. Out there spruiking for something that doesn’t exist. We have entered fairyland here.
My heart, my ethos is, is steeped in the Liberal party. It is about lower taxes and living relationship your means and better outcomes for families, fostering enterprise, restricting the scope of government and building society. It is how we build the base. Read into that what they will. If they put forward good policy, I will support them. If they err, I will tell them and try to amend it.
On marriage equality, a man who has marched at mardi gras, capitulating to the far right in his own party. Perhaps he was convinced by Senator Bernardi’s persuasive arguments around bestiality and the consequences that might flow if we allowed people to marry each other regardless of gender and sexuality. Disgraceful! Disgraceful contributions from a man who has not got the courage to put his views to the Australian electorate on the republic.
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at 2.06am GMT
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2.00am GMT
2.12am GMT
02:00
02:12
Scenes from a resignation, Cory Bernadi in the #senate @gabriellechan @GuardianAus #politicslive pic.twitter.com/G3H0ROHWDG
In the last seven months, you said two answers ago, things haven’t gone the way you would like them to go but you are only identifying one policy that has precipitated you doing this today.
1.59am GMT
Bernardi:
01:59
I was asked for a policy but the voters have rendered their verdict. After the last election I said there was a problem. We need to fix it. When the pollster says the base doesn’t matter, when the election campaign is lacklustre and we hang on by one seat and trumpeted it as a great victory and no one is investigating it, we have got a problem. That problem is getting worse. It is getting worse. The minor parties are growing exponentially because people have lost faith in the major parties. I want to give them a viable, a credible and a principled alternative in which they can vote.
Greens leader Richard Di Natale:
In Senator Bernardi we have 6.5ft of ego but not an inch of integrity. Not an inch. I would have expected that speech if he had given it a year ago before he stood as a Liberal party candidate and waited to get himself a six-year term in the Senate. What a hypocrite!
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1.58am GMT
01:58
Oh brother, where art thou?
George Brandis:
So Mr President, this is a sad day for the Liberal party. It is a sad day when someone leaves the family. Senator Bernardi will have to account to the Australian people and to his own conscience about how he can continue to sit in this parliament, having been elected as a Liberal, but that is a matter for him.
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1.56am GMT
01:56
George Brandis said while the government would deal with Bernardi courteously, the government would expect him to support the government’s policies, which he stood for at the recent election.
He says the Coalition would deal with him courteously, unlike the Labor party did with former defector Mal Colston.
We won’t be abusing him in the way, for example, we saw former [Labor] senator Robert Ray conduct the most vindictive personal campaign against Senator Mal Colston that any of us can remember.
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at 1.58am GMT
1.53am GMT
01:53
The attorney general and Senate leader, George Brandis, says Cory Bernardi has done the wrong thing.
We believe that he has done the wrong thing. Because only seven months ago Senator Bernardi was elected by the people of SA to serve in the Senate as a Liberal senator.
There is a variety of views in theLiberal party, as there is a variety of views in the Labor party, but only seven months ago Senator Bernardi was happy to stand before the people of SA – seven months ago Senator Bernardi was happy to stand before the people of SA to say he sought their endorsement to serve for a 6-year term as a Liberal senator.
Now, Senator Bernardi has been a participant in debates in the Liberal party, as have I, but, in the seven months since the federal election, nothing has changed.
Updated
at 1.59am GMT
1.50am GMT
01:50
Penny Wong replies:
What we have seen today Mr President is extraordinary. Extraordinary. A government senator leaving on ideological grounds and on grounds of conviction and philosophy from the government benches. What we have seen today really tells us something very important about this government because it is emblematic of a government that is bitterly divided, a government that is coming apart at the seams, a government so driven with internal division it is more focused on their own issues than on matters that matter most to Australians.
She says Malcolm Turnbull no longer stands for what he believes in.
I don’t think Tony Abbott was much of a prime minister but he was a hell lot better at being Tony Abbott than Malcolm Turnbull will ever be.
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at 1.59am GMT
1.47am GMT
01:47
Bernardi says his party will focus on stronger families, freedom of speech and smaller government while rebuilding confidence in civil society. He suggests the speaker should consider new seating arrangements.
1.45am GMT
01:45
Cory Bernardi:
For many years, I have warned of the consequences of ignoring the clear signs. I have spoken of the need to restore faith in our political system and to put principle back into politics. I regret that too often these warnings have been ignored by those who perhaps needed to hear them most. It really is time for a better way. For a conservative way. The enduring beauty of the conservative tradition is it looks to the past, to all that is good and great, to inform the future. It is a rich paradox where the established equips us for the new. So today I begin something new, built on enduring values and principles that have served our nation so well for so long. It is a political movement of Australian Conservatives.
1.43am GMT
01:43
Bernardi: the body politic is failing the people of Australia
Cory Bernardi:
When, as a younger man, I joined the ship of state, I was in awe of its traditions and the great captains that it guided us on our way. But now, as the seas through which we sail become ever more challenging, the respect for the values and principles that have served us well seem to have been set aside for expedient, self-serving, short-term ends. That approach has not served our nation well. There are few in this place or anywhere that can claim the respect for politicians and politics is stronger today than it was 10 years ago. In short, the body politic is failing the people of Australia. It is clear that we need to find a better way.
Updated
at 1.49am GMT
1.41am GMT
01:41
Cory Bernardi begins his statement
Bernardi says he is resigning because he believes it is the right thing to do.
1.41am GMT
01:41
Penny Wong informs the Senate chamber that senator Sam Dastyari has been appointed deputy whip of the Labor party. So begins the resurrection.
Updated
at 1.49am GMT
1.39am GMT
01:39
Culleton is sitting alone in the public gallery
1.37am GMT
01:37
President Parry is reading through the history of his actions relating to Culleton and Culleton’s attempts via letters and legal action to remain in the senate.
1.36am GMT
01:36
President Stephen Parry speaks to the vacancy caused by the former One Nation senator Rodney Culleton, pointing out the high court ruling that found he was not eligible to sit in the Senate.
Updated
at 1.37am GMT
1.32am GMT
01:32
Bernardi will give a statement and then Penny Wong is expected to seek leave to speak to it.
1.31am GMT
01:31
Senate is sitting now as the president reads the Lord’s prayer and pays respect to Indigenous elders past and present.
