I wish I could have levelled with you earlier, but I was sworn to secrecy.
Of course I am referring to the announcement this week that I have re-entered the political battle of ideas with One Nation.
Although it's been many months since the decision was made, there were reasons the announcement had to wait until now. That delay also gave me plenty of time to think about the path ahead.
To be honest, and at the risk of sounding like a schoolboy, I am very excited about joining the One Nation Party (ONP) and trying to win a seat at the South Australian State election on March 21.
While I take nothing for granted, the reception so far has been very encouraging.
Most of that comes down to the multi-decade work of ONP founder Pauline Hanson. She has endured the hypocrisy and vitriol of the political elites since she was booted out of the Liberal Party back in 1996.
That's 30 years of fighting the beasts that have happily been ruining the country.
I say that because most of the things Hanson warned us about have borne true.
Where once she was mocked or derided, there is now a begrudging respect that she has achieved something few others could.
That is, unless you are the elderly former Prime Minister John Howard.
He was trotted out this week by the SA Liberal Party to attack both ONP and me. It was as if he resented the fact that the South Australian Liberals are truly hopeless and that anyone could choose to support another political party.
I take comfort from his personal attack that he's previously supported every dud Liberal leader from Malcolm Turnbull to Steven Marshall and even convicted drug offender David Speirs.
That suggests John Howard's sound bites are just propaganda rather than genuinely considered.
After all, if Howard truly contemplated why a 'party of protest' is outpolling his beloved Liberals, he'd have to acknowledge the systemic failure that actually began during his term in office.
Howard championed the middle-class welfare that is baked in and has since crippled the budget and undermined our social fabric. He created the expectation that no matter what the problem, the government would come to fix it.
Since his baby steps, that process has become the stock-in-trade of both the Uniparty participants.
Like a Sara Lee Cheesecake, layer upon layer of taxpayer handouts has delivered today's problems.
Given that circumstance, it's little wonder so many of the legacy parties' supporters are looking for an alternative.
That's called democracy, but to Howard it's a failure of the Australian people.
I guess those same people (at least the South Australians) will render their verdict on Howard's views when they get the chance on March 21.
Thought for the Day
"Hypocrisy is a detriment to progress. There's always a hidden agenda." Larry Flynt
Cory Bernardi is the author of seven books and has been a member of the Australian rowing team, a publican, an investment portfolio manager and spent nearly 14 years as an Australian Senator.
