The Australian Conservatives was formed in July 2016 as a conservative political activist group in Australia and as a political party in February 2017. It was led by Cory Bernardi, who had been elected to the Senate for the Liberal Party, but resigned citing disagreements with the Liberal/National Coalition, its policies and leadership under Malcolm Turnbull. The Family First Party and its two state parliamentarians, Dennis Hood and Robert Brokenshire, joined and merged with the Australian Conservatives in April 2017. Brokenshire was not re-elected at the 2018 state election; Hood left the Conservatives to join the Liberal Party on 26 March 2018, leaving Bernardi as the sole remaining member in federal parliament, whose present term in the senate ran until 30 June 2022. In September 2017, the leaders of the Victorian branch of the Australian Christians agreed to merge the Victorian branch with the Conservatives. On 20 June 2019, Bernardi announced that he would deregister the party following the re-election of the Coalition Morrison Government at the 2019 Australian federal election, citing a lack of political success and poor financial position. The party was deregistered on 25 June 2019. History Activist group The Australian Conservatives were established by Senator Bernardi as a conservative political activist group on 6 July 2016. The group was announced by Bernardi on his personal blog as a conservative "movement" to "help change politics and to give common sense a united voice". Bernardi cited the results of the 2016 federal election as a motivator for the group's establishment, stating that "over 1.7m votes were cast for right-of-centre or conservative parties rather than the Liberals", and that "the clear mission now is to bring people together for the good of the country." Despite contemporary media speculation when he created the group, following numerous public expressions of disappointment towards the Liberals, its policies, and leader Malcolm Turnbull, he stated that its establishment did not signal any breakaway from the Liberals, of which he was a senator, and that its intent was to "make the Liberals stronger". Within a month, the group's online newsletter reached over 50,000 subscribers. Queensland Liberal National Party MP George Christensen was one of the first Coalition members of Parliament to support Bernardi and the Australian Conservatives, following his shared dissatisfaction with the election results. Despite this, Bernardi hinted otherwise in the months following, often going against Coalition policy and criticising the government, in particular