Senator Cory Bernardi has had the wind knocked out of his sails by successive electoral defeats for his party. Hindsight is 20:20, and he should never have left the Liberal Party. The Australian Conservatives had all the potential in the world to bring a genuine conservative revolution to Australian politics, but not as a party in its own right.

The colourful personality cults of Pauline Hanson and Clive Palmer were always going to eclipse Cory “Common Sense” Bernardi. The eventual replacement of failed Labor aspirant Turnbull, who gave the Conservatives their raison d’être, with Christian conservative Morrison, took any remaining oxygen for Cory’s noble adventure.

Cory should always have been the leader of a movement of like-minded people recruiting members to the Liberal Party, pre-selecting conservative candidates to safe seats and supporting a grassroots return to Menzian principles, defying ‘progressives’ and ‘moderates’ dragging the party to the left.

Today Senator Bernardi confirmed he will leave the Senate before his term is up and return the seat to the Liberal Party in an electoral gift. He told The Australian, “I haven’t given a definitive timeline but will leave before my term is up. When I do go, the seat will be filled by the Lib’s.”

As electorally irrelevant as the Australian Conservatives turned out to be, Senator Cory Bernardi’s statesmanship had a great impact on the political language and policies of “the Canberra bubble“. I wish he had have done things differently, and maybe he does now too. All that aside, Australia is all the better for his public service, and I thank him.