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Antic has long been a thorn in the side of Liberal leaders from Scott Morrison to Peter Dutton, who had several fights with the South Australian senator over discipline, and now Taylor. While party moderates have long seen Antic as a menace, conservative MPs increasingly believe Antic presents a serious problem that could require a dramatic solution.
The key source of their anxiety is a persistent rumour in Liberal circles that Antic is angling for a merger between the Liberal and One Nation parties in South Australia. The Liberal Party was wiped out by Labor at the state election in March, leaving the Liberals with five and One Nation with four lower house MPs.
Antic is also hosting an event this month with 2 Worlds Collide podcaster Sam Bamford, a leading supporter of Ben Roberts-Smith and critic of Antic’s conservative colleague Andrew Hastie, who testified in Roberts-Smith’s defamation suit against this masthead over its reporting of alleged war crimes.
One senior source in the party said: “While the party is fighting for its life, it is untenable to have a Liberal senator openly consorting with a competitor party and actively undermining Angus Taylor with public statements supporting cookers like Malcolm Roberts and Sam Bamford.”
The intrigue surrounding Antic shows the ideological tussle within the Coalition over how to tackle the rise of One Nation and leader Pauline Hanson. The minor party has cemented a polling lead over the Coalition for several months, stealing its volunteer base by offering more hardline conservative positions and capitalising on anger with the Liberal Party after two decisive federal election losses.
Antic is trying to become president of the party’s South Australian division, a position that has never been contested by a sitting senator. As yet, nobody has put up their hand to run against him.
His colleagues fear he may use this position to push for an alliance between the two right-wing parties. Such a move would come at a time when federal opposition MPs are ruling out any coalition deals with Hanson and downplaying questions about swapping preferences. Any deal in South Australia would be used by the Albanese government as proof that a vote for the Liberals would effectively be a vote for Hanson.
Senior Liberal sources including those close to Taylor told this masthead that South Australian Liberals may push for a federal takeover of the branch to stop Antic, should he push for the merger.
Another scenario being canvassed is booting him from the party room, should he try to collaborate with One Nation. None of these ideas are well advanced, but party sources are starting to discuss contingencies should Antic escalate.
The 51-year-old senator did not answer a specific question from this masthead about the prospect of a merger.
“You can say what you like,” Antic said. “It’s of no interest to me.”
Antic’s positions on the net zero emissions pledge and cutting back on high rates of migration have been adopted by the Coalition, leaving his fellow MPs to question why he continues to destabilise Taylor and the party.
