Former senator Cory Bernardi recruited by One Nation as future of Coalition remains unclear; RBA to make rate decision today

Former Liberal senator Cory Bernardi has become the latest political figure to join Pauline Hanson’s One Nation as it surges ahead of the fractured Coalition in the polls.

Hanson announced Bernardi would run as the party’s lead upper house candidate in the South Australian election in March.

“Cory has strong, sound conservative values that are an excellent fit with One Nation and he’s a prominent South Australian keen to make the positive differences in his home state the Liberals just can’t bring themselves to make,” she said.

Bernardi served as a senator until 2020. His own party, Australian Conservatives, failed to gain any traction in 2019 after he quit the Liberals.

There is unconfirmed speculation that serving Liberal senator Alex Antic will join Bernardi. Both sit well to the right of the Liberal Party in the hard-right and Christian right.