Not clear whether South Australian senator’s defection will be solo or whether George Christensen will join himThe outspoken South Australian Liberal senator Cory Bernardi will break away from the Turnbull government early this week to form his own conservative movement. Bernardi has gone to ground but expectations within the government are now hard set that the split is on. The South Australian has been telling friends he’s been waiting for the resumption of parliament for 2017 to clarify his intentions, which have been the subject of internal speculation for much of the summer. There was speculation that Queensland conservative Liberal National party backbencher George Christensen might join Bernardi, but Christensen said he remained loyal to his leader Barnaby Joyce and the LNP, as long as the government held true to its values. His Conservative Leadership Foundation reregistered a number of domain names relating to a conservative party in December 2014, including conservative.org.au, conservativeparty.com.au and conservativeparty.org.au.

Source: The Guardian February 05, 2017 23:07 UTC