Cory Bernardi has been told by one his of soon-to-be fellow crossbenchers he risks losing his Senate seat if he quits the Liberal Party to sit as an independent conservative.
Liberal Democrat David Leyonhjelm told reporters in Canberra on Tuesday he had a simple message for the renegade government senator: "Don't do it."
Changes to way senators are elected would make his South Australian seat much harder to retain, he warned.
"I'd probably stay in the Liberal Party and make a nuisance of myself."
Senator Bernardi told Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull on Tuesday he's quitting the government to sit on the crossbench as a conservative independent.
Senator Leyonhjelm revealed he had known of the plans for a few weeks and says Senator Bernardi believes it's the Liberal Party that has moved away from him.
"He thinks that he is upholding what he regards as long-term traditional Liberal values and the Liberal Party has moved away from that," Senator Leyonhjelm said.
Government frontbencher Zed Seselja, a friend of Senator Bernardi, argued the best place to prosecute a conservative agenda was from within government.
"I'm sure that's what millions of Australians who support conservative causes would like to see," he said.
Peter Dutton - regarded as the leading conservative inside Mr Turnbull's cabinet - was more forthright.
"I think people will be angry about any defection, angry about the betrayal of the Liberal Party values," the immigration minister told ABC radio.
Senior South Australian minister Christopher Pyne called on Senator Bernardi to quit parliament.
"The honourable course is for him to resign his seat and for him to recontest it as an independent," he tweeted.
And Simon Birmingham said party candidates had a contract with voters.
"We go to that election on the ballot paper, with not just our names, but also our party affiliation attached to that and that is an enormous guide," the education minister told radio 5AA.
"I don't kid myself into thinking that there are hundreds of thousands of South Australians who know and like Simon Birmingham and choose to vote just for me. I think that most of them choose to vote for the Liberal Party."
Trade Minister Steve Ciobo was dismissive of the senator's ability to take up the fight against Labor, saying every time he had made headlines it was for criticising his own party.
Deputy Labor leader Tanya Plibersek said the Liberals were divided, dysfunctional and at war with themselves.
Mr Turnbull had capitulated to every demand from Senator Bernardi and other conservatives, she said, yet the senator was still leaving.
"If you hand your lunch money over to the school bully, and then one particular day you get lucky and that bully's not at school, I tell you there'll be some other bully lining up to take your lunch money," she said.
Labor senator Sam Dastyari was surprised by Senator Barnardi's decision: "It makes no sense to quit a party that you're already running."
Greens senator Sarah Hanson-Young said Senator Bernardi was "a rat fleeing a sinking ship" and predicted his views would be rejected by their fellow South Australians.
"I know he's got name recognition in his own lunchbox. He loves himself more than anybody else," she said.
"Do other people know him? I'm not really sure."
Independent senator Derryn Hinch accused the Liberal of being elected under a false flag.
"He's got a bit of Trump-itis," he said, adding the prime minister may be better off without a conservative dissenter inside the government.
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