Though it had no formal affiliation with any particular religious organisation, Family First was strongly linked to the Pentecostal church in South Australia, and nationally from smaller Christian denominations.

Family First and its two state parliamentarians Dennis Hood and Brokenshire joined and merged with Bernardi's Australian Conservatives on 25 April 2017.

[6] Brokenshire was not re-elected at the 2018 state election, and Hood left the Conservatives to join the Liberal Party on 26 March 2018.

A few months later, his family-owned building company, Home Australia Group, ran into financial difficulties and was wound up.

In April 2017 the high court ruled that he was invalidly elected in July 2016 and had been ineligible to sit in the senate since February 2016.

Gichuhi was declared by the court of disputed returns on 13 April 2017 to be elected instead of Day, after a special recount of South Australian senate votes.

Family First co-founder Pastor Andrew Evans was the General Superintendent of the Assemblies of God in Australia for twenty years.

[25] Family First's preferencing agreement with the Coalition in the 2004 federal election led Barnaby Joyce, the National senate candidate for Queensland, to publicly slam the party the day before the election, calling them "the lunatic Right", and stating that "these are not the sort of people you do preference deals with".

[26] Joyce's comments came in response to a pamphlet published by one of the party's Victorian Senate candidates, Danny Nalliah who in his capacity as a church pastor had criticised other religions and homosexuality.

The Board of Reference in South Australia includes business-people, members of the medical profession, as well as ministers and people from Catholic, Baptist, Lutheran, Uniting and other church groups.

The rapid national growth of the party leading into this election and the late decision to contest in all seats possible, has meant that in some states there are candidates, with strong family values, who have been introduced to the party through the personal relationships they have from their involvement in community/church networks.A 60-minute documentary was made for the ABC-TV Compass program in 2005 and called "Family First – A Federal Crusade".

The typically apolitical psephologist Malcolm Mackerras stated "The outlandish result occurred in Victoria in 2004 where the Family First party was able to gather tickets from just about everywhere... this is a fluke.

[31] The party also came close to picking up other Senate seats in Tasmania (largely due to preferences from surplus Liberal votes) and in South Australia where the then party leader Andrea Mason narrowly missed out (polling 3.98% and receiving Liberal preferences).

[34] In 2008, some newspapers claimed that Fielding wanted to "relaunch himself as a mainstream political player, beyond Family First's ultra-conservative evangelical Christian support base."

The reports indicated that Fielding had tried to recruit Tim Costello and others around the beginning of 2008 with a view to forming a new party, but had failed to convince them.

[35] The revelations came after Fielding changed his position on abortion, after being rebuffed by his party for taking a softer approach.

[37][38][39] The Queensland Family First Senate candidate Wendy Francis created controversy when she compared allowing same-sex marriage to the stolen generations and to "legalising child abuse".

[40] Bob Day ran as a Family First Party South Australia Senate candidate at the 2013 federal election and was successful.

[53] Due to the failure of his home construction business, Day resigned from the Senate on 1 November 2016 and a replacement was expected to be selected in the following two to three weeks[needs update].

[15] On 13 April 2017 Lucy Gichuhi was declared the new South Australian senator in place of Day, following a recount of ballots.

[54] Following the resignation of Mark Latham and their acquisition of a Senate seat in 2004, Family First contested the 2005 Werriwa by-election and in the absence of a Liberal candidate received 2,890 first preference votes.

Dr Andrew Evans received a primary vote of 4.02% which, along with preferences from other parties, was sufficient to obtain the 8.3% quota and get elected to one of the 11 seats in the South Australian Legislative Council.

Family First was incorporated as a company limited by guarantee and managed by an executive committee comprising the board of directors.

[96][97] In the 2006 Victorian election, Family First's limited television advertising campaign specifically singled out the Greens for criticism.