While senior government ministers have attacked Bernardi over his move to the crossbench, it came as no surprise to political watchers who had long rumoured he would quit the party.

While Senator Bernardi hasn’t confirmed what banner he will fly next, retired irrigator and United Conservative Party (UCP) state president Ron Pike said he had discussed policy with the South Australian.

“I don’t know who Cory will align himself with but we’ve said to him ‘here’s this policy base that can make Australia great again’,” Mr Pike said. “We’re trying to unite smaller groups and we’ve got a number of agreements in place that we’ll announce in the coming weeks.”

The move won’t affect the balance of power in the Senate, but a similar move in the lower house would see the government lose its one-seat majority.

Charles Sturt University politics lecturer Troy Whitford said there had been rumours of Senator Bernardi’s desire to form his own conservative party since shortly after the federal election, but he didn’t think a union of minor parties would ultimately be successful.

“These micro-parties are small and fragmented and they don’t play well with others,” Dr Whitford said.

“They’re not good at compromise – they’re splinter groups and it’s unlikely anyone will be able to hold them together given their nature of breaking away when they’re unhappy.”

Mr Pike said voters across the globe has demonstrated their discontent with traditional political parties and were looking for people to put them first.

“Trump was very effective because he picked up that they were going into debt and jobs were drying up and he said he’d put them first,” Mr Pike said.

“The party that comes out in Australia with that message and sells it convincingly will win a stack of votes – that’s why One Nation is so popular, I’m talking to them about policy daily and they’re getting thousands of members.”

However, Dr Whitford expected Australia would only briefly flirt with populism before the major parties reevaluated their policies.

“Anything that gets the average voter engaged is good for democracy providing they think about it in a common sense way,” he said.