MPs walk out as South Australian One Nation leader Cory Bernardi targets trans children and the welcome to country in his maiden South Australian parliament speech.
The former Liberal Senator was elected to the Legislative Council at the state election in March.
He opened his maiden speech on Tuesday by mimicking an indigenous Welcome to Country ceremony.
“Let me begin by welcoming you all to the land of my ancestors, and by recognising the leaders past, present and emerging that have all played a role in building our great state and nation”.
In his maiden speech, Bernardi said people needed to stop finding “virtue in victimhood” and that “men and women had distinct and different roles in raising children.”
But it was his comments targeting the transgender community that saw Greens MLCs Robert Simms and Melanie Selwood leave the chamber in protest.
“The media are silent, while the government allows doctors to mutilate children in the name of gender-affirming care,” he said, “To me, it’s sheer madness that can be countered with a commonsense analogy.”
He compared the treatment of people with eating disorders to those suffering gender dysphoria, describing gender affirming care by medical professionals as “collective madness”.
Bernardi posted on social media later that day: “I take the Greens storming out of my maiden speech as a compliment. I must have been saying something right.”
I take the Greens storming out of my maiden speech as a compliment. I must have been saying something right. https://t.co/8PX8ajawLy
— Bernardi (@corybernardi) May 20, 2026
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‘We’ve become a nation of easily offended snowflakes’
This news isn’t really a surprise, considering Bernardi doubled down “100 per cent” on a speech he gave linking same-sex marriage to bestiality back in 2012 during the South Australian election.
During his maiden speech, the One Nation leader said he returned to politics after leaving because: “The middle class has been hollowed out as the creeping hand of socialism divides us into tribes, fostering envy, fueling resentment, and social decay.”
“Our political class have squandered our God-given opportunities with false ideology and empty promises, and in doing so, they have taken away a lot of the hope and aspirations for so many in this country.”
He rallied against the responses to the COVID pandemic, calling the virus “nothing more than the flu”, stating it had allowed the political class to trample on people’s freedom.
“It worries me that we’ve become a nation of easily offended snowflakes, that melt at the slightest challenge of obstacle, often insisting that the government do something about it, while these people are willing to do nothing for themselves,” he said.
“We’ve actually dumped the childhood maxim of ‘sticks and stones may break my bones, but names will never hurt me’ to become a nation where words that may cause offence to any precious petal are actually deemed illegal.”
No Cuban cigars for Cory
“People are sick of being fed a steady diet of tasteless vegan political tofu and being told that it’s tasty eye fillet, and really good for them,” Bernardi said.
“They want their country back, and I want to give it back to them, starting right here in South Australia.”
“People are sick of being fed a steady diet of tasteless vegan political tofu and being told that it’s tasty eye fillet, and really good for them.”
One Nation’s Cory Bernardi has announced himself with a divisive maiden speech that saw several of his parliamentary colleagues… pic.twitter.com/43lNT9wiFW
— The Advertiser (@theTiser) May 19, 2026
He added believed most people were accepting of people who were not heterosexual, as long as they did not “shove it in people’s faces or force them to publicly celebrate it.”
He also criticised communism, saying, “It’s my personal crusade, Mr President, to starve the communist regime of Cuba of any funds so they collapse and democracy can ring true.”
“Now I’ve since learned that the Cuban cigar business has been bought by the communists in China, so I’m now bringing down two regimes as a personal crusade.”
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I have always been disgusted by Bernardi. The fact that Greens MPs walked out showed that he was being offensive.