Sarah Hanson-Young (SA, Australian Greens) Share this | Hansard source

Tonight, Senator Bernardi is preparing to take his seat alongside the great political visionaries of history. Gandhi, Winston Churchill, Martin Luther King, Nelson Mandela—sure, they were okay, but now, thankfully, the world is being given the gift of Cory and his Australian Conservatives. Heavy on rhetoric but light on detail, Senator Bernardi has been pretty tight-lipped today about what his shiny new party will actually stand for, what their policies might be and what principles they will hold dear. Perhaps in his unquestionable wisdom, Senator Bernardi has decided that the Australian people are just not ready for his genius. Maybe that is for the best, because you never know. Just imagine the policies or the commandments that would make up his narcissistic manifesto. Maybe something like, 'I am the lord,' by Cory. 'There shall be no other Corys before me.' 'Though shalt honour thy father and thy mother'—of course, not thy father and thy other father. 'Though shall not lie'—but of course you can still use alternative facts. 'Thou shalt not covet thy neighbour's ass'—or any other pets or livestock. Say what you want about his policy platform, but one thing is clear: Senator Bernardi is trying something new. It is visionary. It is exciting. Racist, looney, homophobic, climate sceptic, reactionary, right-wing politics—it is new. Well, of course for Pauline Hanson, Tony Abbott, obviously, Geert Wilders, Donald Trump—