He has never been among the shy and retiring elements of the Turnbull government backbench.
But Cory Bernardi has sounded an ominous warning to his Liberal Party colleagues for 2017 - he's going "all in" to bring about the type of political change that American voters were thirsting for when they put Donald Trump in the White House.
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Carbon review divides government
Cory Bernardi gives voice to government divisions over a proposed carbon intensity trading scheme in the electricity sector. Courtesy ABC News 24
Fresh from a three-month stint on secondment to the United Nations in New York, the outspoken senator said it was not by design that he landed straight back at the centre of Australia's political debate this week, howling down talk of a revived emissions trading scheme.
He described the ETS debacle as the government "chasing policies that ingratiate it with the Greens" and just plain "economic suicide".
"Why is it up to me to call it out as dumb when the well-paid brains of cabinet couldn't see it?" said Senator Bernardi in reference to the government's climate policy review that left open the option of carbon trading, absolute anathema to the South Australian and fellow conservatives like Tony Abbott.
"The terms of reference were so clear but they made it through cabinet in that form and they all denied what it said."
Senator Bernardi, while professing devotion to Liberal Party philosophy and government unity, is clearly not an uncritical member of the team, to put it mildly.
Asked whether Malcolm Turnbull is a "good prime minister", Senator Bernardi defers.
"That's for others to judge. I'm interested in good policy outcomes. I've found him to be respectful and approachable when I've needed," he said
He is critical of his colleagues for what was not learnt during the Trump experience, identifying some of the same hunger for change that existed in the US in Australia.
"I'm going to say 80 per cent of Liberals who commented on the US election backed Hillary Clinton. They backed her even though she wanted to put tax up by $1.3 trillion, have open borders, allow undocumented illegal aliens remain in the country. A big government program that is not consistent with Liberal Party philosophy," he said.
"Donald Trump wanted to cut tax, strengthen borders, decrease the size of government, and they wanted his opponent to win. These are people who have posters of JFK in their Canberra offices."
Senator Bernardi said he identified the mood for change on the streets of New York and Washington despite the unprecedented media campaign against electing Mr Trump.
"A Puerto Rican woman said: 'One's a crook and one's crazy and sometimes we need a bit of crazy'," he said.
But Bernie Sanders would have beaten Mr Trump if he had won the Democratic Party nomination, according to Senator Bernardi.
A US pollster showed him research that found 50 per cent of young Americans believe socialism or communism is a preferable system to capitalism.
"Hillary Clinton was the very worst candidate they could have put up. She's working for the elites, she was crooked and the system was crooked and they wanted someone to fix it," he said.
He said One Nation had made inroads back into the Australian electorate because Pauline Hanson and her colleagues are willing to talk about the things that "people are talking about in the pub".
"If you have politicians who refuse to talk about immigration, for example, you're going to get people like Pauline Hanson who will tap into that space," he said.
The senator said he had no intention of being silenced on matters from immigration to the conservative cause de jour, freedom of speech and the repeal of Section 18c of the Human Rights Act.
"Given the stasis in politics all around the world, it's only those who are willing to go all in who can make a change, and I'm in this to make a change."
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