A PROUDLY conservative group that wants to be the "Australian Tea Party" will push for corporal punishment, referendums to sack bad governments and tougher refugee policy at the federal election.

CANdo, a group created by Liberal firebrand Cory Bernardi and loosely modelled on the right-wing faction of the US Republican Party, also claims gay marriage could lead to Muslim polygamy.

CANdo is run by chairman David Flint, former Australian Broadcasting Authority chair and leading monarchist, and Jai Martinkovits, who also runs Australians for a Constitutional Monarchy.

Professor Flint said CANdo wants a referendum on gay marriage and defended Senator Bernardi over recent comments suggesting it might lead to bestiality.

"All he was saying was that if you open up marriage to a wider group, then there will be calls for more," Prof Flint said. "Perhaps that would be the next cab off the rank," he said.

"Muslim people are allowed polygamous marriage, but there will no doubt be calls for recognition, such as through the welfare system."

While unaligned to any political party and reliant on private donations, the group will back election candidates aligned with its causes.

Broadcaster Alan Jones and businessman Hugh Morgan are patrons of CANdo, which wants controversial ex-2UE host Michael Smith appointed managing director of the ABC, and the creation of grand juries to investigate alleged MP misconduct.

Prof Flint said it also wanted to protect the legal right for citizens to offend each other without fear of legal action.

"I've been called a perma-tanned Indonesian-born blow-in. Some people might find that offensive, but it's not a matter for the law. People should live with it," he said.

"We believe government should focus on defence, border protection and school education, not putting pink batts in people's roofs."

Another crucial issue is corporal punishment in schools. "There was that case in Sydney recently where some poor lady was knocked out of a motorised wheelchair. They were said to be boys. They could do with a few strokes of the rattan (Singaporean cane)," he said. "I received a few strokes when I talked out of turn in Singapore. You didn't step out of line again."

Mr Martinkovits said CANdo was a rival to GetUp, the left-wing activist group, and was looking to appoint high-profile patrons in each state and territory.

He estimated its active support base at 16,000.

"In the US, they have the Tea Party, which is not a party, but a coalition of conservative groups that are just sick of government waste. I suppose we see ourselves as an Australian version," he said.

Prof Flint said the reaction to Jones's comments on Prime Minister Julia Gillard's father having "died of shame" was an "overreaction".

"I think it suited a lot of people. At last we got him. They then proceeded to use it against him," he said. "She (Gillard) called (Liberal MP) Christopher Pyne a mincing poodle ... but he took it. I think if you accept those things, you don't worry about it."Prof Flint, who guest lectures in law at the University of Technology, Sydney, said many asylum seekers deliberately destroyed documentation to seek refugee status.

Asked if he believed half those arriving on boats were not legitimate refugees, Prof Flint said: "Yes. That's what I am saying."

Jones said CANdo aimed to lobby the federal government to establish an elected convention to draft referendum questions designed to increase government accountability.

"We need a similar referendum today on the subject of greater government accountability on border protection (and) uncontrolled mining," Jones said. "Governments need to be held accountable for their promises.

"CANdo is about, in the first instance, seeking appropriate debate on these outcomes and then, quite simply, making it happen."