Cory Bernardi

Cory Bernardi is a Liberal Party of Australian Senator in the federal parliament.

Inaugural speech
In his inaugural speech in the Senate in June 2006 Bernardi argued that "the mainstream of Australia has clearly rejected the so-called ‘rights’ that are at odds with our laws and our traditions. In fact, one could argue the entire concept of ‘rights’ has been so debased in recent times that it is difficult to know what is a right and what is simply a desire. You will hear people telling you they have a right to swim in a certain suburban pool or the right to borrow a book from a community library or even that they have the right to die. These are not rights— these are desires governed and formed by personal belief and self-interest ... The modern rights industry can be even more extreme, often equating the rights of an animal or a plant to that of a man, thereby reducing mankind to just another species among species. Such claims undermine our commonsense and of course they undermine the natural law. In simple terms, the natural law is that which is written in our hearts and the hearts of all cultures. I would like to touch upon just one element of the natural law: the act of marriage. Marriage is not a right; it was not invented—marriage simply is. Marriage has been reserved as a sacred bond between a man and a woman across times, across cultures and across very different religious beliefs. Marriage is the very foundation of the family, and the family is the basic unit of society. Thus marriage is a personal relationship with public significance and we are right to recognise this in our laws. Because the term ‘rights’ has been corrupted in recent times, in my mind we need to transfer the concept into one of respect for the dignity of the individual. Indeed, my attraction to the Liberal Party is because of its support for the individual."

Current affiliations

 * Bernardi is listed as an "international delegate" to the American Legislative Exchange Council


 * Founder and Chairman of the Conservative Leadership Foundation.

Employment prior to becoming a Senator

 * Self-employed hotelier 1992-96. Another biographical note states that Bernardi "owned and operated various small businesses in and around Adelaide" prior to becoming an investment adviser.
 * Investment adviser and fund manager 1996-2006.

Role within the Liberal Party
On his Senator profile page, Bernardi lists his past roles within the Liberal Party as having included:
 * Vice-President, Liberal Party (SA) 1997.
 * Member, State Executive, Liberal Party (SA) 1997-2003.
 * Member, Liberal Party Finance Committee (SA) 1997-2000.
 * President, Liberal Party (SA) 1998-2000.
 * Member, Liberal Party Federal and State Campaign Committees 1998-2000.
 * Member, Liberal Party Federal Executive 1998-2000 and 2005-06.
 * Member, Liberal Party Appeals Tribunal (SA) 2004-06.
 * Member, Liberal Party Multicultural Committee (SA) 2004-08.
 * Federal Vice-President, Liberal Party of Australia 2005-06.

Other past affiliations
On his Senator profile page, Bernardi lists his past other affiliations as having included:
 * Member, Australian Rowing Team. In a 2002 media release announcing Bernardi's appointment to the Australian Sports Commission board it was stated that Bernardi was a "former Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holder" and that he "has represented Australia in the Coxless Fours at the 1989 World Rowing Championships and was a member of the Australian Eight that won the Henley Regatta in 1988."
 * Board member, Australian Sports Commission. In November 2002 the Minister for the Arts and Sport, Rod Kemp, appointed Bernardi to the board of the Australian Sports Commission. In November 2004 Bernardi was reappointed for a further two year term by the then Minister for the Arts and Sport, Senator Rod Kemp.
 * Chair, Australian Sports Foundation Ltd. (In November 2004 Kemp stated that Bernardi was chair of the "Australian Sports Foundation Board" which was "tasked with generating funds for the development of sport from the corporate sector and the community sector."
 * Chair, National Review of Disability Sport.

Contact details
Electorate Office 36 Grenfell Street, Kent Town South Australia 5067

PO Box 2192, Kent Town South Australia 5071

Phone:(08) 8362 8600 Fax: (08) 8362 8579

Parliament House (Senate), Canberra ACT 2600 Phone:(02) 6277 3278 Fax: 6277 5783

Website: http://www.senatorbernardi.com/ Blog: http://www.corybernardi.com/ - Common Sense lives here

External resources

 * "Biography for Bernardi, Cory", Parliament of Australia website, accessed January 2012.
 * Cory Bernardi, "First Speech", Parliament of Australia website, June 13, 2006.
 * "Bernardi busy behind 'grassroots' anti-carbon tax movement", The Age, 16 October 2011

Books by Bernardi

 * Cory Bernardi, The money tree: securing your child's financial success, self-published, 2007.
 * Cory Bernardi, Fit for life!, self-published, 2008.
 * Cory Bernardi, As I see it: thoughts of a conservative, self-published, 2009.
 * Cory Bernardi, No left turn: more thoughts of a conservative, self-published, 2011.

Articles by Bernardi

 * Cory Bernardi, "For Australia's sake, we need to ban the burqa", Opinion, Sydney Morning Herald, May 6, 2010.

Other articles

 * Deborah Gough, "Bernardi busy behind 'grassroots' anti-carbon tax movement", The Age, 16 October, 2011.
 * Mike Seccombe, A Field Guide to the War on Wind Power, The Global Mail, 4 October 2012.