Former Liberal senator tells Andrew Bolt that the former prime minister’s ideas ‘are absolutely spot on’

This article is more than 3 years old

This article is more than 3 years old

Cory Bernardi has publicly invited Tony Abbott to join his new Australian Conservatives movement after the former prime minister’s incendiary speech last Thursday in which he laid out a conservative manifesto for the next federal election.

Bernardi told Andrew Bolt on Monday night Abbott would be very welcome to join his new breakaway political movement given last week’s policy manifesto from Abbott lined up precisely with his own views about the policies required to appeal to disaffected Australian conservative voters.

Abbott’s used a highly provocative speech at a book launch in Sydney last week to declare the Coalition needed to cut immigration, slash the renewable energy target, abolish the Human Rights Commission and gut the capacity of the Senate to be a roadblock to the government’s agenda.

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He warned the government risked “drifting to defeat” if it did not front up with a more muscular conservative agenda, given voters were looking for alternatives, and some Coalition voters were already drifting over to One Nation.

Abbott’s behaviour was rebuked forcefully by a number of Cabinet ministers, including conservatives, who argued his intervention was deliberately destructive.

But Bernardi said the Liberal party was being very foolish to rule out Abbott’s “good ideas.”

“I was watching [Tony Abbott] last week and I was talking to the TV saying, ‘Where were you all those years ago Tony?’ because those ideas are absolutely spot on,” Bernardi said on Monday night.

Bernardi said conservatives needed to campaign on a platform of cutting power prices, “trimming” immigration and cutting government spending – and, if the government resisted, “what hope is there for the Liberal party?”

He said conservatives sick of the government’s lack of action on those issues could come to the “warm, welcoming embrace of Australian Conservatives ... Tony Abbott included.”

“Good on Tony Abbott,” Bernardi said. “I don’t know what his motives were last Thursday but good on him.”