The Bernadi Bunch...

[Rorschach]

Coming soon: Cory Bernardi’s Australian Majority
The Australian
December 24, 2016
Sarah Martin
Political reporter
Canberra

Firebrand conservative senator Cory Bernardi has set up a new political group called “Australian Majority” with a new website and logo prepared for release in the new year, The Weekend Australian can reveal.

The new website is linked to the senator’s existing Australian Conservative website, and has been uncovered in the internet source code shared between the two pages.

News of the website, which includes the tagline “coming soon”, will further fuel Liberal concerns that the outspoken conservative senator is set to formally split from the party in the new year to spearhead a new conservative force.

It is unclear whether the senator intends to use the new group as a conservative political activist group to rival left-wing GetUp!, or whether Australian Majority is the foundation for a new mainstream political party.

Senator Bernardi has remained tight-lipped about his plans for next year, but in further signs the Australian Majority group may be poised to become a political party, the website uses software popular with formal election campaigning — including the Brexit and Trump movements — called NationBuilder.

The technology, which is also used by many political candidates in the US, is known as a “community organising system”, which goes beyond a traditional website, integrating Facebook, Twitter and other social media, and is also a powerful tool for distributing campaign information.

Another page that appears to be under testing on the Australian Majority website — which can be accessed through www.am.org.au — shows that the website links to the Facebook feed of the ­Conservative Leadership Foundation.

The domain name Australianmajority.com.au is also owned by the foundation. It is unknown when the new logo and website for Australian Majority was built, but it was first detected by the internet archive five days after the July 2 election.

The name Australian Majority was also registered as a trademark by a company controlled by Senator Bernardi’s wife late last year.

Senator Bernardi has dismissed as “gossip” speculation that he will split from the Liberal Party, but he has refused to comment this week about his “massive” plans for 2017. He did not respond to questions from The Weekend Australian yesterday about Australian Majority and its purpose.
Efforts are under way to try to convince the outspoken South Australian to stay “in the tent” of the Coalition, including from high-profile conservatives such as Tony Abbott and Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz.

This week, Nationals MP ­George Christensen threatened to leave the party unless there was a change in direction from Malcolm Turnbull to reconnect with the conservative base.

Senator Abetz warned his party colleagues that “disunity is death” but urged Mr Turnbull to reconnect with the “broad spectrum” of the Liberal Party.

“To fail to do so I fear could lead us to electoral oblivion and that clearly is not within the nation’s interest because the alternative is Bill Shorten, a gentleman that is absolutely ill-suited to be prime minister of our nation,” he said.

Former Liberal speaker Bronwyn Bishop added to calls for the Prime Minister to do more to prove he was fighting the re-emergence of socialism.

“Socialism is on the march and so it’s terribly important that the Turnbull government and Turnbull himself is very, very strong about starting to understand about free enterprise and starting to pull that party together as an ­entity which can indeed fight against that socialist revival,” she told Sky News.

Well all of us should be aware of Bernadi's site CANDO which has been around for years and had one major change a few years ago... but it like Get Up and You're Rights at Work was heavily biased and attacked en mass and banned people who dissented from their pov. If Bernadi and his mods and admin run this new site like CANDO it will also fail to do anything for the "Conservative Cause".

[Redneck]

I am so impressed with Bernardi, I have joined his organisation

[Redneck]

Will probably join this as well if its free!

Bernardi sets up 'Australian Majority' group

Updated: 9:11 am, Saturday, 24 December 2016

Outspoken Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has created a new political group called 'Australian Majority', in a move likely to fuel speculation he will split from his party.

The Weekend Australian reports the website 'am.org.au', which is linked to his existing Australian Conservative web page, and a logo are set to be launched in the new year.

It is not yet known whether Senator Bernardi plans to launch the re-branded movement as a a political party or a right-wing alternative to the GetUp group.

Former prime minister Tony Abbott and Tasmanian senator Eric Abetz are reportedly among MPs urging Senator Bernardi not to split from the Liberal Party.

Conservative figures including Queensland MP George Christensen and Senator Abetz have also called on Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to address a perceived shift away from the Liberal Party's base.

http://www.skynews.com.au/news/top-stor ... group.html

[Rorschach]

I am so impressed with Bernardi, I have joined his organisation

As per usual you display the LW Prog trait of choosing individuals and not policies and making everything personal... hard habit for you to break eh Red even if you keep protesting its wrong to portray LW Progs as they actually are.

[Redneck]

I am so impressed with Bernardi, I have joined his organisation

As per usual you display the LW Prog trait of choosing individuals and not policies and making everything personal... hard habit for you to break eh Red even if you keep protesting its wrong to portray LW Progs as they actually are.

Not related to aquascoot are you?

Stick your advice where the sun dont shine!

[Rorschach]

Cory Bernardi’s revolt a tricky challenge for Malcolm Turnbull
The Australian
December 24, 2016
Dennis Shanahan
Political Editor
Canberra

Like the ghost of Christmas to come, Cory Bernardi has provided a glimpse of a dystopian life for Malcolm Turnbull, a life full of recrimination, punishment and despair before a lonely political death in a Liberal Party bereft of friends.

The South Australian senator truly has earned the epithet “maverick” through the years as he has proudly championed conservative causes and spoken out against political correctness. Bernardi felt bitterly betrayed by both Liberal leaders in the past seven years.

But the problems the Prime Minister and the Liberal Party face are far greater than a senator going rogue and threatening to set up parliamentary shop for himself. Bob Katter was a similar maverick for the Nationals when then leader John Anderson, tired of the distractions, called his bluff and saw Katter leave and become entrenched as an independent MP, one who is always attempting to build his own Katter party.

The threat posed by Bernardi, who has floated the idea of a breakaway conservative party, is more serious. Unlike Katter, who was a leader looking for a party, Bernardi knows there is a party looking for a leader.

Senior Liberals and Nationals are deeply concerned about the twin threats to Coalition support, from within the parties and at the ballot box, and the risk of a Liberal split that would formalise a schism that has been growing since Turnbull became leader.

Like Pauline Hanson, Bernardi is in the right place at the right time to exploit general and specific disillusion and disenchantment with the Liberals and Nationals.

The general disillusion is not just with the Coalition but is part of the wider feeling of frustration with the political processes and parliamentary gridlock, an alarming decline in support for our democratic system that is being felt in jurisdictions where voters feel their views and ballot box choices are not being recognised or implemented.

This is a problem for all the major parties, including the ALP, which will face its own grim harvest of obstruction if it continues a course of shallow politics played out on social media. But it is a particular problem for the Liberals because of the manner of Turnbull’s coming to power and his failure to project an image of himself that reflects the reality of his position.

Bill Shorten and the Greens have attacked and framed Turnbull from the left of centre, criticising him for surrendering all he believed in, while conservatives such as Bernardi have portrayed him as standing against conservative issues and cultural values.

Turnbull has been slow to react to the unfavourable political portrayal of him and falls victim to generalisations from both sides. He has been unable to define himself in his new role and so disappoints all sides.

Bernardi is representative in many ways, not all, of the sense of betrayal many conservative Liberals felt when Tony Abbott — as “their” right-wing leader — was removed last year and replaced by a small l-liberal, a republican who supported Labor’s climate change policy on an emissions trading scheme and same-sex marriage, seemed reluctant about tough border protection and offshore processing, and was too lawyerly in his approach to anti-terror laws.

As well as this history creating a deep suspicion of Turnbull on his lack of instinctive adherence to tenets of Liberal faith, there was the complacent delay at the end of last year and the confused presentation of policy options before and during the election campaign. Changes to superannuation for higher income earners continues to be a fundamental cause of Liberal disaffection.

Bernardi, who last met Turnbull in New York in September when they were both attending the UN, has been able to exploit his position as a leading Liberal conservative to build personal support and the structures for a new conservative movement. If he bails out of the Liberals it will not be on a whim, a sudden decision or something that has not been planned, including the necessary financing of such a new party or movement.

It may be that Bernardi is playing a long game and is becoming the means by which the Liberals can keep and lure back those conservatives attracted to One Nation, but there is no doubt a split will come at great cost. Liberals recognise the danger this represents and even Abbott, who would not be human if he didn’t want Turnbull to fail as a leader, just as Kevin Rudd bitterly resented his removal in his first term, does not support a breakaway party.

Abbott has rejected calls from disappointed Liberals to stage a comeback via a new party and recognises the dire threat that a split within Coalition ranks represents. He is convinced a formal split will doom the Coalition to decades of opposition.

It is Turnbull’s responsibility to deal with this grave threat. As Abbott told The Australian this week, it is the “leader’s duty” to keep the party united. Yet Turnbull’s challenge is immense, partly because of his slow start in reassuring Liberal conservatives that the removal of Abbott did not mean an end to conservative Liberal values, and his initial hesitancy in embracing his predecessor’s policies.

What’s more, trying to appease Bernardi is almost impossible. The senator has reason to resent both Turnbull and Abbott for his removal from the frontbench in opposition and in government. He was a strident public critic of Abbott, particularly over his free-speech retreat on the repeal of section 18C in the Racial Discrimination Act.

Since becoming Prime Minister, Turnbull has eventually demonstrated that his enthusiasm on climate change is not “ideological” and he has declared carbon taxes and emissions trading schemes do not work. He also has killed off any suggestion of an energy-intensive emissions tax on power stations. Perhaps it is late but he has at least recognised the electoral power of rising electricity and gas prices and will be addressing that next year.

On border security, Turnbull at last has adopted the language and tone of Peter Dutton’s hard line on offshore processing amid his anger over Labor’s exploitation of a pro­blem that was of Labor’s making.

After campaigning for three elections on the revival of the Australian Building and Construction Commission, Turnbull succeeded in getting a compromised bill through a hostile Senate. He has also stood firm on the policy of a plebiscite on same-sex marriage, and must stick to this.

Assisted by deplorable decisions under section 18C that galvanised public opinion on freedom of speech, Turnbull at least has managed to get the repeal of the section dealing with “offence” referred to a parliamentary committee. And yesterday Turnbull did not hesitate for a moment to blame Islamist radicals following the arrests in Melbourne over the alleged Christmas Day terror plot. Just two years after Abbott was criticised for suggesting the Martin Place siege in Sydney was an act of terrorism, Turnbull didn’t dissemble as he has in the past.

Yet, for all of this, Turnbull has not turned Bernardi from a titillating course of establishing a new movement or party to reap the discontent, general and specific, that has grown while he has been Prime Minister.

Part of this is the visceral mistrust of Turnbull among many conservatives that all his protestations seem unable to quell. As Eric Abetz, dumped by Turnbull, said this week, there is a cultural problem and it takes too long to articulate a clear, unequivocal Liberal position on anything from GST to same-sex marriage.

In the meantime the Opposition Leader, even when there are signs of some internal Labor dissent, is able to portray Turnbull as weak, Abbott as “the ghost of Christmas past” and the Liberal Party as “at war with itself”.

In a way it is conducting its own cultural and personal wars and there is no clear way for Turnbull to turn, but there is no doubt he must act and not allow the Coalition to sleepwalk to a loss that is not yet inevitable.

[Rorschach]

I am so impressed with Bernardi, I have joined his organisation

As per usual you display the LW Prog trait of choosing individuals and not policies and making everything personal... hard habit for you to break eh Red even if you keep protesting its wrong to portray LW Progs as they actually are.

Not related to aquascoot are you?

Stick your advice where the sun dont shine!

Wassup Red, got nothing but ad hom... how LW prog of you
Don't want me to point it out?
Stop posting it then