{"id":570839,"date":"2026-02-06T16:08:15","date_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:08:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/570839\/"},"modified":"2026-02-06T16:08:15","modified_gmt":"2026-02-06T16:08:15","slug":"cory-bernardi-bats-away-former-prime-minister-john-howards-dismissal-of-his-liberal-defection-to-one-nation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/570839\/","title":{"rendered":"Cory Bernardi bats away former prime minister John Howard\u2019s dismissal of his Liberal defection to One Nation"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cory Bernardi has returned serve after former prime minister John Howard dismissed his prospects of being part of a \u201cserious political movement\u201d following his defection from the Liberal Party to join One Nation.<\/p>\n<p>In an exclusive interview with The Advertiser, <a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/australia-news\/politics\/one-nation-mp-barnaby-joyce-fires-back-at-john-howard-after-the-former-pm-labelled-the-minor-party-a-grievance-vehicle\/news-story\/db57e6cafbffaf66bde978e97ab83c82\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"db57e6cafbffaf66bde978e97ab83c82\" data-tgev-label=\"australia-news\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Mr Howard said One Nation was not a \u201cserious political movement\u201d and \u201can accident of political history\u201d<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The former prime minister also said Mr Bernardi was \u201cdesperate for recognition\u201d.<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"body-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.skynews.com.au\/stream\" data-tgev=\"event119\" data-tgev-container=\"bodylink\" data-tgev-order=\"stream\" data-tgev-label=\"stream\" data-tgev-metric=\"ev\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>The World According To Rowan Dean is available to watch for SkyNews.com.au subscribers. To become a subscriber, click here.<\/strong><\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u201cI don\u2019t think, to use the vernacular, he\u2019s going to trouble the scorers,\u201d Mr Howard said.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking to Sky News host Rowan Dean, Mr Bernardi batted away Mr Howard\u2019s remarks, calling the former prime minister a \u201clegend\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr Howard I&#8217;ve known (for a while), he&#8217;s a legend,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBut they seem to wheel him out when the death throes of the Liberal campaign (are) there.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHe&#8217;s backed every liberal leadership person, every contender, he has backed every campaign, no matter how hopeless they are.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bernardi said for someone of Mr Howards\u2019s stature to dismiss One Nation, which now represents a \u201cgreat swathe of votes out there\u201d, one question needed to be asked.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHow did it get to this?\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf the Liberal Party and the Labor parties were actually doing the right thing by the country, if they were enacting policies that people wanted, and if they&#8217;re actually making our lives better, well, maybe there wouldn&#8217;t be a need for One Nation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"poster-img\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/02\/645624308ad16d01176d45c52dd3b471.jpeg\" data-sctrack=\"op-poster-img\" alt=\"Pauline Hanson delivers brutal line to senators who \u2018tried to silence\u2019 her\" fetchpriority=\"high\"\/><\/p>\n<p>The former Liberal senator said the \u201cduopoly\u201d on politics, the \u201cuni-party\u201d, could not be saved as both of the main parties were taking Australia in the same direction.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat&#8217;s why One Nation, after three decades of warning people what was happening, what was going to come, after Pauline Hanson&#8217;s determination and her prescience I should say, the chickens are coming home to roost,\u201d Mr Bernardi said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Howard also told The Advertiser that Mr Bernardi was a \u201cpleasant man to deal\u201d with, but called into question his rationale for joining forces with Pauline Hanson.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMate, this is the behaviour of somebody who\u2019s desperate for recognition, not somebody who wants to seriously contribute to policy,\u201d Mr Howard said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bernardi addressed the former prime minister\u2019s slight against his \u201cbehaviour\u201d and claimed attention was the \u201cfurthest thing from my mind\u201d.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know, Mr Howard to say that I&#8217;m seeking attention, well, mate, I&#8217;ve enjoyed more than my fair share of time in the spotlight, and that&#8217;s the furthest thing from my mind,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat I want is to actually fix some of the problems that are there, and I want to help train or support or build an army of people who are going to actually have a very strong voice for their state and for their country.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr Bernardi said if he spent the next four to six years mustering a large followership who aligned with One Nation\u2019s mission to make the country \u201cbetter off\u201d, he would happily fade into obscurity.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI only wish Mr Howard would probably do the same about that,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Cory Bernardi has returned serve after former prime minister John Howard dismissed his prospects of being part of&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":570840,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_share_on_mastodon":"0"},"categories":[2],"tags":[4740,248245,23178,50,162361,56443,248246],"class_list":["post-570839","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-australia","tag-cory-bernardi","tag-john-howard","tag-news","tag-one-nation","tag-pauline-hanson","tag-rowan-dean"],"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116024555571934711","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570839","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=570839"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/570839\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/570840"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=570839"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=570839"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=570839"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}