Cory Bernardi

Personal life

Bernardi was born and raised in Adelaide, and attended Prince Alfred College in Kent Town, South Australia. His father was an Italian immigrant who came to Australia in 1958. His maternal grandfather was a trade unionist and a staunch Labor supporter. He went on to undertake a business and management course at South Australian Institute of Technology before winning a scholarship and furthering his rowing career at the Australian Institute of Sport in 1989.

After a back injury terminated his rowing career, Bernardi travelled in Europe and Africa, working as a labourer. Returning to Australia, he managed the family's hotel before spending four months in hospital with tuberculosis. He subsequently worked as a stockbroker and financial adviser before entering politics.

Bernardi and his Irish-born wife Sinéad, an economics graduate, have two sons.

Rowing career

Bernardi made state representative appearances for South Australia in the State Youth VIII at the Australian Rowing Championships in 1987 and 1988. In 1988 Bernardi, rowing in a Mercantile Rowing Club eight, won the Ladies' Challenge Plate at the Henley Royal Regatta in England. The Ladies Challenge Plate is open to 2nd grade/varsity/college crews below the heavyweight international standard.

In 1989 Bernardi was selected in the seven seat of the South Australian Men's Senior VIII. At that year's nationals the interstate events were cancelled when a cyclone hit the Wellington Dam course in WA part-way through the programme of events. An unofficial men's eight race was held three weeks later at Carrum in Victoria attended by the Victorian, Western Australian and South Australian crews who raced for the Patten Cup. Bernardi's South Australian crew placed 2nd. That year Bernardi became an Australian national representative when he was selected in the three seat of the coxless four which competed at the 1989 World Rowing Championships in Bled (in what was then Yugoslavia and is now the Republic of Slovenia), and placed tenth. Bernardi suffered a back injury later that same year which effectively ended his rowing career.

Elections to the Senate

In March 2006, South Australian Senator Robert Hill resigned from the Senate to become Ambassador to the United Nations, and Bernardi was selected by the Liberal Party to fill the vacancy, with his senate term officially commencing on 4 May 2006. On 17 February 2007, Bernardi was pre-selected by the State Council of the South Australian Liberal Party to be the number one candidate on the South Australian Liberal Senate ticket for the federal election to be held in late 2007. He was pre-selected ahead of Simon Birmingham, while Senator Grant Chapman came in third. At the election, Bernardi was elected to a full six-year term. At the 2013 federal election, he was again given the first place on the Liberal ticket and was re-elected; and, following a double dissolution of Parliament, at the 2016 federal election he was re-elected from the second place on the Liberal ticket.

Opposition under Brendan Nelson: 2007–2008

In December 2007, Bernardi was appointed the federal Coalition's Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Families and Community Services. On 19 March 2008, Bernardi was named in a story published in The Australian newspaper as having been linked to a scheme that sold financial advice on how divorcees could hide money from their former spouses. In a media statement released shortly after the article was published, Bernardi described the story as "a rehash of a factually incorrect story that first appeared in 2006 before my appointment to the Senate". He further claimed that he had been "made aware that a colleague has been approaching numerous journalists in an attempt to 'push' this matter as a means of personally attacking me". The statement went on to say, "I find it disappointing that there are people who clearly pine to background journalists with half-truths and mischievous suggestions in an attempt to smear others. The people who creep out of their darkened closets to resurrect previously discredited accusations do no service to themselves or the community. Politics is a battle of ideas, not a battle of smears."

On 20 March 2008, Bernardi introduced a motion calling for a Senate inquiry into swearing on television and the effectiveness of the Code of Practice after a television show was broadcast at 8.30pm containing the word "fuck" eighty times in 40 minutes. The Senate supported the motion. In June 2008, Bernardi stated his personal view on onlineopinion.com.au regarding proposed reform relating to same-sex relationships. He states that "Same-sex relationships are not the same as marital relationships and to treat them the same is to suspend common sense". Writing on the ABC "unleashed" website in July 2008, Bernardi questioned the ethics of granting human rights to great apes while ignoring the rights of the unborn child.

In August 2008, it was reported in the Herald Sun newspaper that the Federal Parliamentary Library had, following a request from Bernardi, identified a loophole in government legislation that allowed some women who aborted their pregnancies to claim the $5,000 "baby bonus". The Government stated that the bonus was not available for aborted pregnancies and committed to following up any occurrences of this.

Opposition under Malcolm Turnbull: 2008–2009

In September 2008, new Federal Liberal leader Malcolm Turnbull appointed Bernardi the Coalition Spokesman for Disabilities, Carers and the Voluntary Sector. Bernardi caused a stir in October 2008 with a speech to the Senate against the Same-Sex Relationships (Equal Treatment in Commonwealth Laws-Superannuation) Bill 2008, which was supported by the Liberal Party. The bill led to discontent within the Party's conservative faction, of which Bernardi is a key figure. Turnbull was "unhappy that Party authority was being challenged" by Bernardi. In Bernardi's speech, he complained that society should not "throw open the doors and welcome into the fold those whose relationships are uncharacteristic of the most basic elements of a marital union". Turnbull rang Bernardi the next morning to "chip him", having felt that the speech was intemperate in tone, went against the party line, and against Turnbull's leadership.

Bernardi was removed from the Shadow Ministry by Turnbull in February 2009 after reportedly making unsubstantiated claims regarding a fellow Liberal MP in his weekly blog. Recalling an encounter with the Liberal MP at the Royal Adelaide Golf Club about 14 years before, he wrote:

In response to my question of why he joined the Liberal Party, the MP blithely responded "I live in a Liberal seat so I had to be a member of the Liberal Party to get into Parliament. If I lived in a Labor seat I would have joined the Labor Party". Frankly I was aghast at this response. Where was the conviction, the beliefs, the values that I believe should motivate our political leaders? Several follow up questions disclosed that the only motivation for his own political involvement was for him to become Prime Minister.

The MP involved was thought to be Christopher Pyne, who denied the allegations as "preposterous".

Opposition under Tony Abbott: 2009–2013

Following the election of Tony Abbott as the leader of the federal Liberal Party in late 2009, Bernardi was appointed Shadow Parliamentary Secretary Assisting the Leader of the Opposition and Shadow Parliamentary Secretary for Infrastructure and Population Policy, and in August 2012 was appointed Deputy Manager of Opposition Business in the Senate. In September, 2012, Bernardi resigned from his position as parliamentary secretary as a result of statements he had made the day before, when he argued that permitting same-sex marriages would lead to legalised polygamy and bestiality.

Abbott and Turnbull Governments: 2013–2017

In January 2014, Prime Minister Tony Abbott again distanced himself from Bernardi after the latter called for a new debate on abortion, called for more flexible industrial relations laws, stated his belief in the primacy of the traditional family and claimed that non-traditional families may cause negative social outcomes, linked a secular polity with Australia having lost its way, and claimed that Christianity was under siege from both the political Greens party and the religion of Islam.

In September 2016, Bernardi spoke in favour of the repeal of section 18C of the Racial Discrimination Act, which prohibits speech that is reasonably likely to "offend, insult, humiliate or intimidate on the basis of race, colour or national or ethnic origin". In December 2016 Bernardi got into a public spat with former Prime Minister Tony Abbott over reports that Bernardi may start his own party.

Departure from the Liberal Party

On 7 February 2017, Bernardi announced that he would be leaving the Liberal Party to form his own party, the Australian Conservatives. His move was made seven months into his six-year term in the Senate, following his election at the July 2016 election.

Advocacy initiatives

In September 2016 it was reported that Bernardi in 2009 set up an entity called the Conservative Leadership Foundation, "a fundraising entity that inhabits a grey area in the political donations system and permits gifts from foreign donors." and that "it has never made a disclosure to the Australian Electoral Commission as an associated entity, nor disclosed any political expenditure." In July 2016, Bernardi also formed the Australian Conservatives movement which "will unite conservatives", and which by August claims 50,000 members.

Political views and controversies

Prior to forming the Australian Conservatives, Bernardi was a member of the conservative faction or right-wing of the Liberal Party.

Global warming

On 21 April 2007, Bernardi published an essay questioning whether global warming was caused by human activities. Then-environment Minister Malcolm Turnbull and other Liberal parliamentarians promptly distanced themselves from his views.

Islam

Bernardi has been publicly critical of Islam. In 2010, he wrote an opinion piece calling for a ban on wearing the burqa in public.

In 2011, Bernardi referred to the controversy over paying funeral expenses for asylum-seekers, declaring it was "wrong" for the government to pay. He also said that "Islam itself is the problem—it's not Muslims", and that multiculturalism had failed. He subsequently clarified his remarks by stating "When I say I'm against Islam, I mean that the fundamentalist Islamic approach of changing laws and values does not have my support."

For these comments he received death threats. Liberal leader Tony Abbott distanced himself from the comments.

Bernardi has been associated with Dutch politician Geert Wilders whose vocal concerns about Islam are shared by Bernardi, and met Wilders in Europe. Bernardi offered to assist Wilders in a visit to Australia but, in February 2013 when Wilders did come, Bernardi did not meet with him. Wilders stated in an interview that Bernardi's decision not to meet him was a "sad but true" reflection on politics, particularly in an election year. The opposition treasury spokesman, Joe Hockey, said in response "Neither Cory Bernardi nor the Coalition will be facilitating this visit."

Abbott rejected suggestions that Bernardi was trying to bring Wilders to Australia, saying the Coalition had nothing to do with the organisation of any trip.

In September 2016, Cory Bernardi proposed the Turnbull government take up a modified version of the immigration policy of One Nation, aiming to mollify people fearing Muslim immigration as he felt soft immigration policies were to blame for a fall in government support.

In February 2017, Cory Bernardi attracted criticism for speaking at the Q Society of Australia. The event received protests who called the event "racist".

Publicly funded broadcasting

Bernardi has publicly expressed his concern over the effect of Australia's public broadcaster, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, on commercial operators. His view is that the ABC has grown beyond its initial charter and its size is unjustifiably encroaching into the online news sphere at the expense of commercial operators and media diversity. However, Bernardi supports the continued existence of iView (internet based television service) and podcasting services. Bernardi agrees that the ABC provides useful services to regional areas often under-serviced by commercial operators; however, he suggests that the scale of the ABC's funding should be reviewed.

Detractors

In October 2015, the ABC apologised to Bernardi after Tony Jones, host of the television program Q&A, likened the political views of Bernardi to that of the neo-fascist Golden Dawn party.

In February 2016, Labor Opposition Leader Bill Shorten labelled Bernardi a "homophobe". In March, student protesters vandalised Bernardi's Adelaide office and wrote slogans such as "stop homophobia", after Bernardi raised concerns about the content of the Safe Schools Program. Bernardi claimed the program was indoctrinating minors.