Cory Bernardi warns against power of government at Friedman Liberty Conference – The Sydney Morning Herald

Senator Cory Bernardi, the Liberal Party defector who founded the Australian Conservatives, has told a Trump-tinged political conference in Sydney that conservatives and libertarians are united in an ongoing moral battle against the federal government, which he said was the most pressing danger to the freedom of Australians.

Addressing the Friedman Liberty Conference, hosted by the Australian Libertarian Society, Senator Bernardi said Australians had a moral obligation to fight against the growth of government, taxation and regulation. This view was held by severalformer colleagues in the Liberal Party butparty discipline prevented them from saying so.

He said he believed the Australian Conservatives would become the umbrella party for a growing range of small right-wing political organisations, and grow to threaten the Liberal Party in a similar fashion to the Greens' impact onLabor. So far Kirralie Smith of the Australian Liberty Alliance as well as Family First, have joined the Australian Conservatives.

The keynote speaker at the conference is the American anti-tax campaigner Grover Norquist, famous for his argument that government should be shrunk until it was small enough to drown in a bath.

Mr Norquist gained notoriety in the United States in 2012 when he managed to convince all but 12 Republicans in Congress to sign a pledge to never pass any increase in any tax. Adherence to the pledge was a contributing factor to the subsequent shutdown of the American government.

Speaking with Fairfax Media he said he was pleased with the direction of the Trump administration, particularly with its plans to cut the corporate tax rate from 35 per cent to 15 per cent.

"We were once the country even dumber than Australia," he said. Mr Norquist believes once the Trump cuts are passed the rest of the world is going cut corporate rates to at least 20 per cent.

Mr Norquist also voiced support for the "radically free-market" views of senior Trump administration appointees, such as Betsy DeVos, the Secretary of Education who has long campaigned against the public education sector.

He said his speech to conference would focus on the importance of libertarians building coalitions. "People want liberty for different reasons. Some people want religious liberty, some people want to educate their own children, some people are interested in tax. You don't have to be interested in the same causes when you are fighting for liberty."

This was the fifth libertarian conference held in Sydney, and one of its organisers, Tim Andrews of the Australian Taxpayers Alliance, says interest in libertarianism in Australia is growing quickly.

Speakers included the freelance journalist Daisy Cousins, who spoke of the dangers of feminism, which she said was a front for Marxist oppression of women, and Senator David Leyonhjelm, who joined a panel entitled The Right to Shoot.

The overwhelmingly young and male audience included a handful who wore the distinctive red hats baring Donald Trump's campaign slogan, Make America Great Again.

Speaking with Fairfax Media, Senator Leyonhjelm said he did not believe Donald Trump's success was representative of a broader international surge for libertarianism. Rather, he said, voters were turning towards politicians who disrupted incumbent major parties.

Almost 30 per cent of Australians have voted in recent elections for non-mainstream parties, with many of them turning to Pauline Hanson's One Nation. But Senator Leyonhjelm believes these voter are not yet fixed and could still return to major parties or drift to other outlets for protest votes.

The speakers on Sunday include Mark Latham and Ross Cameron.

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Cory Bernardi warns against power of government at Friedman Liberty Conference - The Sydney Morning Herald