I am saddened to see Cory Bernardi de-register his Australian Conservatives. I have featured an advertisement on my Blog for a long time now. He sent me a very comprehensive e-mail, I publish some of the highlights below. I no longer fear the loss of my very comfortable zoo home! Thanks for caring Cory!

Cory writes:

Dear Chugley,

We are all disappointed by our Party performance at the last election.

Our candidates, members and volunteers all did their best but as a Party we received a tiny fraction of the votes we needed to be successful. We can make all the excuses in the world for the result but it is clear that many of our potential voters returned to supporting the Coalition when Malcolm Turnbull was replaced by Scott Morrison.

Many also said that I needed to deliberately court controversy to gain media attention during the election campaign. While that may have worked, it would have undermined the very premise of what we offered to the Australian people – a credible and principled alternative to the political fringe.

However, some solace can be found in the fact we never compromised on our principles in pursuit of political sugar hits.

The Future

When I started the Australian Conservatives in February 2017 the times were very different.

Malcolm Turnbull was leading a Labor-lite Coalition into political oblivion. As they abandoned their supporter base in pursuit of green-left policies, major party politics became an echo chamber rather than a battle of ideas.

The inescapable conclusion from our lack of political success, our financial position and the re-election of a Morrison-led Government is that the rationale for the creation of the Australian Conservatives is no longer valid.

Accordingly, I will shortly begin the process of formally deregistering the Australian Conservatives as a political party.

No doubt this will come as a disappointment to those who have shown so much support over the past two years but in light of the circumstances, it is the wisest course of action.

On 7 February, 2017 I told a journalist that political success for the Australian Conservatives could be loosely described as being no longer necessary because the Coalition had returned to its traditional policy roots and would once again win back the confidence of the Australian people.

If that happened I said, “I’ll be gloriously fulfilled and I’ll go fishing at Coffin Bay.”

I am not quite ready for the fishing but the Morrison government victory and policy agenda suggests we are well on the way to restoring common sense in the Australian parliament. That is all we, as Australian Conservatives, have ever sought to do.

Thank you once again for your support and I remain,

Yours sincerely

Senator Cory Bernardi

Very well said. If any of my readers would like a copy, please e-mail me.

Gibber! Gibber!

Chugley

The Politically inclined Chimp