WHAT HAPPENED?
* Family First and Senator Cory Bernardi's fledgling Australian Conservatives have announced they will merge.
WHAT DOES IT MEAN?
* Two SA MPs, who have represented Family First, Dennis Hood and Robert Brokenshire, will now represent the merged entity in the state's upper house.
* With Family First ceasing to exist, newly elected Senator Lucy Gichuhi will become an independent - having opted not to join the amalgamated group.
* All Family First members will be moved over to the Australian Conservatives.
SHOULD THE MAJOR PARTIES BE WORRIED?
* Senator Bernardi and the Family First MPs seem to think so, saying the merge will give conservatives a single party to vote for outside of the Liberals.
* But Liberal Senator Simon Birmingham has played down the merge's impact, saying it "may not be as profound as some of the media hype is making out."
* Labor Senator Penny Wong says it will bolster Senator Bernardi's chances of being re-elected and she suspects the group's "real target" is Malcolm Turnbull.
* The first test of the new entity's electoral sway will be the 2018 SA election.
