Palmer United Party

Palmer United Party United Australia Party
Leader	Clive Palmer
Founder	Clive Palmer
Founded	2013
Headquarters	380 Queen Street, Brisbane, Queensland
Political position	Centre-right
Colours	Yellow
House of Representatives	1 / 150
Senate	0 / 76
Queensland Parliament	2 / 89
Website
unitedaustralia.org palmerunited.com
Politics of Australia Political parties Elections

The Palmer United Party (PUP) is an Australian political party, formed by mining magnate Clive Palmer in April 2013. The party was formed as the United Australia Party, and remains registered under that name in Queensland, but federally the name was changed to fast track registration and to avoid a conflict with similarly named parties.^[1] Currently represented by two members in the Queensland Legislative Assembly, the party fielded candidates in all 150 House of Representatives seats at the September 2013 federal election. Palmer, the party's leader, was elected to the Division of Fairfax, and two candidates were elected to the Senate – Glenn Lazarus (QLD), and Jacqui Lambie (Tas) – to take their seats from 1 July 2014.^[2][3] In addition, Palmer convinced Senator-elect Ricky Muir of the Australian Motoring Enthusiasts Party to enter in to an alliance with the Palmer Party.^[4]

Background

Palmer announced in November 2012 he was considering reforming the historic United Australia Party, which had been folded into the present-day Liberal Party of Australia in 1945. He had been a longtime supporter of the federal National Party, as well as the Liberal National Party of Queensland. Palmer's nephew, Blair Brewster, had applied to trademark the party name two months earlier.^[5] There was subsequent speculation it would join forces with Katter's Australian Party.^[5] A month following the party's founding, Palmer announced that the party would be renamed the "Palmer United Party" to avoid confusion with a separate party already registered with the Australian Electoral Commission, the Uniting Australia Party.^[1]

Federal politics

Peter Slipper, the independent (formerly Liberal National) member for the Division of Fisher (and previously Speaker of the House of Representatives), joined the party on 11 May 2013.^[6] Hours after announcing his membership had been accepted, the party released a statement on its website announcing members had decided to revoke Mr Slipper's membership under clause D26 of the constitution of the party.^[7]

2013 election

In April 2013, Palmer announced he was relaunching the UAP with the goal of running candidates in the 2013 federal election and had applied for registration in Queensland.^[8][9]He told Lateline "It's a reformation of the original party".^[10] The party also endorsed candidates to run in the Senate.^[11] In the state of Victoria, two retired sportsmen were announced as Senate candidates; namely Australian rules football player Doug Hawkins and boxer Barry Michael.^[12]

In the 2013 election, Palmer won the Sunshine Coast-area seat of Fairfax, where he owns a holiday resort. Senate candidates Glenn Lazarus (a former player of the NRL's Brisbane Broncos) and Jacqui Lambie were elected for Queensland and Tasmania respectively.

State politics

Queensland

On 30 April 2013, two Queensland state MPs, Alex Douglas and Carl Judge, joined the party. Both had been elected as Liberal National Party MPs at the 2012 state election, but had fallen out with the LNP and resigned from the party later that year, and had sat as independents in the interim.^[13] The party remains registered under its original name, the "United Australia Party", with the Electoral Commission of Queensland.^[14]

Policies

• Party officials should not be lobbyists, thereby taking a strong position on paid political lobbyists, saving tax payers dollars and introducing fair policies ^[15]
• Abolish the carbon tax^[15]
• Revising the current Australian government refugee policy to ensure Australia is protected and refugees are given opportunities for a better future and lifestyle^[15]
• Creating mineral wealth to continuously contribute to the welfare of the Australian community. This will be achieved by utilising mineral resources from Queensland and Western Australia, and incentives from the Commonwealth of Australia to establish downstream processing in the States of Victoria, New South Wales and South Australia; and exporting products at a higher dollar value, thereby creating more revenue, jobs, tax and more facilities.^[15]
• Establishing a system where people create wealth in various parts of the country and for that wealth to flow back to the community that generates the wealth. For example, if a particular region creates wealth, a significant percentage of that wealth should go back to the region.^[15]
• Closing down detention centres for asylum-seeker boat arrivals: "... abolish the detention camps, restore our navy to its traditional role, save the lives of children and families, keep families together and recognise the legitimate rights of those that have a lawful reason for entering Australia."^[16]
• Moving towards free trade and closer economic relations with Asia."^[16]
• Decentralisation and regional self-government, such as a new North Queensland state.^[17][18]
• Encouraging competitive markets by restricting monopoly and prohibiting unfair trading practices.^[16]
• Abolish higher education fees.^[19]

See also

• List of political parties in Australia
• Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party

External links

• Official website
• Memo of understanding between the Palmer and Motoring parties

References

v t e Politics of Australia Commonwealth Queen Governor-General Prime Minister Cabinet (Shadow Cabinet) Executive Council Ministry Foreign relations Parliament Senate House of Representatives Opposition Leader High Court Lower courts Constitution Act Statute of Westminster Australia Act Federal elections pre-1969 1969 1972 1974 1975 1977 1980 1983 1984 1987 1990 1993 1996 1998 2001 2004 2007 2010 2013 next by-elections State/Territory governments Governors and Administrators Premiers and Chief Ministers Parliaments and Assemblies NSW Vic Qld WA SA Tas ACT NT State/Territory elections NSW 2011 Vic 2010 Qld 2012 WA 2013 SA 2010 Tas 2010 ACT 2012 NT 2012 NSW 2015 Vic 2014 Next Qld WA 2017 SA 2014 Tas 2014 ACT 2016 NT 2016 Local government NSW Vic Qld WA SA Tas NT Political parties Coalition (Liberal, National, LNP, CLP) Labor Greens Palmer United Party Liberal Democratic Party Family First Party Katter's Australian Party Democratic Labour Party Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party Other parties