United Australia Party (2013)
The United Australia Party (UAP), formerly known as Clive Palmer's United Australia Party and the Palmer United Party (PUP), is an Australian political party formed by mining magnate Clive Palmer in April 2013. The party was deregistered by the Australian Electoral Commission in 2017, revived and re-registered in 2018, and voluntarily deregistered in 2022 (but remains registered in Victoria).[9] The party fielded candidates in all 150 House of Representatives seats at the 2013 federal election. Palmer, the party's leader, was elected to the Division of Fairfax and it reached a peak of three senators following the rerun of the Western Australian senate election in 2014. When the party was revived under its original name in 2018, it was represented by ex-One Nation senator Brian Burston in the federal parliament.[10][11]
This article is about the contemporary political party founded by Clive Palmer. For the historic party, see United Australia Party.
At state and territory level, the party has been represented in the Parliaments of Queensland and the Northern Territory. Two members of the Queensland Legislative Assembly joined in April 2013, while three members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly, joined the party in April 2014. Both the Queensland members and the NT members left the party later in 2014.[12][13] The party unsuccessfully contested the South Australian, Tasmanian, and Victorian state elections in 2014. Since the COVID-19 pandemic in Australia, the party has supported anti-lockdown politics.
On 23 August 2021, independent MP Craig Kelly joined the party, becoming its first representative in the lower house since Palmer's retirement in 2016. Kelly became the leader of the party, with Palmer acting as the party's chairman.[14] The UAP announced a preference deal with the Liberal Democrats for the 2022 federal election, where each party encouraged its supporters to choose the other as their second preference.[15] Candidates were endorsed to run in every lower house seat in the May 2022 federal election as well as the senate and Ralph Babet was elected as a senator for Victoria at that election.
State and territory politics
New South Wales
The United Australia Party has never been registered in New South Wales.
At the 2023 state election, the United Australia Party endorsed nine candidates (including party leader Craig Kelly) for the Legislative Council as "Group B" due to the party being unregistered in New South Wales. No candidates from this group were elected.
Northern Territory
In April 2014, three independent members of the Northern Territory Legislative Assembly – Alison Anderson, Larisa Lee, and Francis Xavier Kurrupuwu – joined Palmer United, with Anderson becoming the party's leader in the Territory.[69][70] The trio had resigned from the ruling Country Liberal Party (CLP) during the previous month, leaving the CLP with a one-seat majority in the unicameral Northern Territory Parliament.[71] After the MPs joined Palmer United, Campbell Newman, the Premier of Queensland, suggested Clive Palmer was attempting to "buy votes", which resulted in Palmer initiating defamation proceedings against Newman.[72][73] The PUP is not registered with the Northern Territory Electoral Commission,[74] but the party already meets the NTEC's eligibility requirements for registration because it is "registered under the Commonwealth Electoral Act".[75][76] However, Francis Xavier resigned from the party to rejoin the CLP in September 2014, and Lee and Anderson resigned to become Independents in November.
Queensland
The United Australia Party (UAP) was registered with the Electoral Commission of Queensland (ECQ) on 5 June 2013.[77] Alex Douglas and Carl Judge, the members for Gaven and Yeerongpilly, respectively, in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, joined the party the following day, having announced their intention to join the week before.[78] Both had been elected as Liberal National Party MPs at the 2012 state election, but fell out with the LNP and resigned from the party later that year, sitting as independents in the interim.[79][80] The party remained registered with the ECQ under the United Australia Party name until 28 February 2014, when its registration was updated to reflect the change to Palmer United Party.[81][82] The proposed name change had been announced late the previous year,[83] with Douglas announcing it in parliament on 20 November 2013.[84] Douglas quit the party and sat as an independent from August 2014, and Judge followed suit two months later.[12]
PUP contested its first Queensland state election in 2015. Its state leader was John Bjelke-Petersen, son of former Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke-Petersen.[85] PUP had a poor run-up to the election; although actively stopping a number of federal education and health reforms in the Senate, Lambie's decision to leave the party following the departure of Carl Judge and Alex Douglas at the state level, gave an impression that the party was in disarray. This was reflected in the pre-election polling that had PUP at less than 4%. To complicate matters, Clive Palmer was sick during much of the campaign, missing the election launch. This left the inexperienced Bjelke-Petersen to do most of the electioneering. Despite these difficulties, PUP managed to field 50 candidates out of a possible 89 electoral districts in Queensland. PUP policies included: a First Farm Buyers Grant; to abolish payroll tax for businesses and; tighter regulation of coal seam gas operations.[86] The PUP received 5.1% of first preference votes.[87] While counting was underway, the PUP candidate for Ferny Grove, Mark Taverner, was revealed to be an undischarged bankrupt. Under Australian electoral law, Taverner was ineligible to run. This led to speculation that a by-election would be required in the seat; Labor was narrowly ahead on the two-party vote, and Taverner had preferenced Labor.[88] However, the final tally showed that Taverner's votes had no bearing on the outcome, so a by-election was not required.[89]
On 23 September 2016, The PUP applied for deregistration in Queensland, effectively terminating its operation in that state.[42] A party spokesperson stated that the party was set up as and would remain a federal party, but no longer contest state elections.[43]
South Australia
Two independent candidates at the 2014 South Australian state election were endorsed by Palmer United.[90] Ngoc Chau Huynh and Kristian Rees (a former soccer player who finished his career at the then Clive Palmer-owned Gold Coast United) ran on a combined ticket for the Legislative Council, and polled 1.6 percent without either being elected.[91] The party had failed to achieve registration by the required date, with the election held on the same date as the Tasmanian state election.[92]
Tasmania
After an appeal against the party's registration was dismissed in the Supreme Court of Tasmania, Palmer United was registered with the Tasmanian Electoral Commission (TEC) on 17 February 2014, and was one of seven parties to contest the March 2014 state election.[93] The party polled 4.97 percent of first-preference votes in the House of Assembly, but did not win a seat. It achieved its best result in the Division of Braddon, where its candidates polled 7.18 percent to finish ahead of the Tasmanian Greens, and third overall, behind the Liberals and Labor.[94] Kevin Morgan, a former public servant who stood in Braddon, was the party's leader during the election,[95][96] while Barbara Etter, the former CEO of the Integrity Commission Tasmania and a former assistant commissioner of Western Australia Police, was deputy leader, standing in Denison.[97][98] Palmer United and the Liberals were subject to TEC investigations over claims they had breached electoral advertising rules by publishing the name and photos of opposing candidates without their permission.[99] The party reportedly spent "more than $1 million on saturation advertising" during the campaign.[100]
Victoria
The party ran in the 2014 Victorian state election, running candidates in the Victorian Legislative Council, the party won 66,679 votes, or 1.95% of the vote, they did not win any seats. In January 2015, unsuccessful Palmer United Party candidate Maria Rigoni petitioned the Supreme Court of Victoria to declare the 2014 election invalid, alleging that the Victorian Electoral Commission had breached the Electoral Act whilst conducting the election. Rigoni argued that the unprecedented high level of early voting demonstrated that the VEC had not applied or enforced the rule requiring applicants for an early or postal votes to declare a valid reason to an electoral officer that they were unable to vote on polling day.[101]
In 2022, Clive Palmer announced that Geoff Shaw had become the party's Victorian leader.[102]
The party ran in the 2022 Victorian state election, running candidates in the Victorian Legislative Council, the party won 31,043 votes, or 0.83% of the vote, they did not win any seats.[103] Victoria is the only state where the party is still registered.
Western Australia
Palmer, in the midst of a court case against Western Australian Premier Mark McGowan, announced his party would not contest the 2021 state election.[104]
The party's policies are, as of 18 September 2021:[105]
2022
