The Australian Conservatives will later today announce their candidate for the by-election in Bennelong. He is 25-year-old Maronite Catholic. Bennelong voted narrowly "No" in the recent SSM vote.
Bernardi has very little to lose with this venture. At worst they perform dismally and get less than 5% of the vote. However, in their favour:
- SSM has been the main political issue of the month with both the LNP and Labor supporting the Yes campaign
- the electorate is 27% Catholic, with another 25% being Christian of some description
- the electorate has about 20% East Asians who are often more conservative in their out look. Many are also religious.
- being a non white, the MSM will find it harder to conflate conservatism with racism
- Turnbull has lost many LNP conservatives. These people would not want to vote Labor.
