Katharine Murphy reports in The Guardian (26.4.17) on the announcement that the Australian Conservatives party, represented in the Senate by Cory Bernardi, will amalgamate with the Family First Party, with the latter’s resources and sitting members to be subsumed within Berbardi’s nascent right-wing organisation.
‘The Family First party will merge with the new Australian Conservatives political movement in a new realignment on the right of Australian politics.
‘But the merger is unlikely to include the new Family First senator Lucy Gichuhi, who appears set to take her place in the federal parliament as an independent.
‘The merger will bolster the fledgling Australian Conservatives party, established by the Liberal defector Cory Bernardi in early 2017, giving the party the prospect of expanding beyond its base in South Australia in time for the next federal election.
‘Combining resources and infrastructure will help Australian Conservatives face off against stiff competition on the right from Pauline Hanson’s One Nation party.
‘As well as the new federal representative, Family First has two other members in the South Australian parliament, Dennis Hood and a former Liberal minister Robert Brokenshire. The merger is a consequential development ahead of the South Australian election, due next year.’
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