South Australian Senator Cory Bernardi clearly has no interest in Australian Conservatives winning enough seats to form a government in South Australia... or anywhere else, it seems.

A few weeks ago, he had a wonderful opportunity to stand candidates in the Queensland election but he made sure his Party was not registered in time.  Queensland was begging for an alternative to the limp-wristed, rudderless Liberal National Party and its baggage-laden leader Tim Nicholls, but Cory Bernardi was nowhere to be found.  He blamed disloyal members for slowing down the registration process, but many of us know otherwise.  The truth came from his Victorian colleague, Dr Rachel Carling-Jenkins.  The Party wanted to focus on getting Senators elected.  There was never any intention of running State candidates in Queensland.

Now in his home state of South Australia, Cory Bernardi has wimped again.  Instead of standing up for conservative voters across the State, his Party is likely to stand only a handful of candidates.  [REFER THE UPDATE ABOVE, POSTED AFTER CLOSE OF NOMINATIONS ON 26 FEBRUARY]  The Family First supporters who were swallowed up when their State executive signed up to "the Bernardi plan" must be pretty sore.  He has taken their money, just like in Queensland, with seemingly no intention of delivering for the members.

Again, it was one of his parliamentary colleagues who blew the whistle on him.  MLC Robert Brokenshire was quoted by Adelaide's InDaily  (12 January 2018) as saying, "Our main focus is on the Upper House."  Of course, Mr Brokenshire is keen to hang onto the seat he won under the Family First banner, now that he has joined Australian Conservatives.

The decision to run candidates in perhaps just ten seats instead of the 42 that Family First ran in in 2014, has the Opposition Liberal Party fearing the same result will happen for them as happened for Tim Nicholls and the LNP in Queensland.  The narcissistic focus on Upper House seats and keeping mates in a job, is likely to ensure that the Left (whether Labor or Xenophon's SA Best team) continue to control the Treasury benches of South Australia.