Senator says membership is soaring as Liberal base becomes disaffected with general direction of party

Cory Bernardi has said his Australian Conservative party has had a surge of more than 700 new members in the days since the Coalition’s budget, with many of them resigning from the Liberal party.

The former Liberal said there had been huge pushback from the Liberal party base over the budget – which increased taxes on banks and the Medicare levy for the National Disability Insurance Scheme.



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“There’s huge pushback,” Bernardi told Guardian Australia. “A lot of people are copying me into emails to local Liberal branches announcing their intention to finally resign.”



Bernardi said while he had not had a chance to look at all the emails, new members tended not to nominate a particular budget measure – it was more about the vibe.



“It is a bit like the Castle, it was the vibe,” Bernardi said. “It could be commitment to new taxes, the abandonment of principle, the idea that the Liberal party is not the party they were meant to be.”

He described John Howard’s criticism of the budget as extraordinary. “I think the Liberal base are thinking this is not the party we joined, we didn’t join the Malcolm Turnbull Lib team, we didn’t join an imitation of the Liberal party that believes in these things,” Bernardi said.

“They might not be the 51% of Australia but they are a substantial minority. They are saying we are concerned at the level of taxes and the size of government and the major parties seem to have thrown up their hands.”

The South Australian senator said his new members had come largely from Victoria, New South Wales and Queensland.

So far, the reaction on the government benches to the budget has been mostly supportive. While some MPs privately report that the Liberal base has been unhappy about the tax increases, there has been little overt criticism of individual budget measures.

While Tony Abbott quipped about his less than enthusiastic applause for the treasurer, he endorsed some budget measures such as the welfare changes, the infrastructure package, small business tax breaks and the defence spending.

Liberal MP Craig Kelly said during his electorate events over the weekend, constituents were concerned about the level of debt but could not agree on what needed to be done.

“I was at a number of street stalls and everyone was concerned about level of debt, saying more needs to be done,” he said. “But when you ask them where the cuts should be, everyone comes up with a different answer.”

He said there seemed to be general support for the increase in the Medicare levy by 0.5% to fully fund the National Disability Insurance Scheme but there was some concern over the effect of the $6.2bn bank tax on superannuation funds and the share prices.