Mining magnate Clive Palmer has launched a ‘Make Australia Great Again’ political party just weeks before the federal election.
The billionaire is set to announce a new political party called ‘Trumpet of the Patriots’ at a press conference in Canberra at 11am.
It will replace his United Australia Party, which he failed in a High Court bid to re-register, and will focus on slashing ‘government waste and corruption’.
‘For too long, Australians have suffered from a Labor and Liberal duopoly of power supported by the Greens and now the Teals,’ a statement on the new party’s temporary website reads.
‘The simple reason your cost of living is so high is because Australians are being ripped off by the political system, unelected bureaucrats and the lobbyists who support them.
Echoing US President Donald Trump’s language, the statement adds: ‘Enough is enough! We will drain the swamp!’
The Trumpet of the Patriots was originally registered in 2011, according to a Australian Electoral Commission register.
The Daily Telegraph reported that the party was originally known as the Country Alliance, before changing its name multiple times.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer has launched a ‘Make Australia Great Again’ political party just weeks before the federal election. the party, which is called Trumpet of the Patriots, is a conscious echo of US President Donald Trump’s anti-establishment campaign
The billionaire’s new party promises to ‘drain the swamp’ in Canberra
Them name changes included the Australian Federation Party in 2020, before it was changed to the Trumpet of Patriots last year.
The party is expected to run candidates in all lower house and open senate seats.
‘Who’s to say that Clive Palmer won’t rip the heart out of the conservative vote and steal numerous seats at this election?’ asked 2SM’s Chris Smith, who broke the news on Wednesday.
‘This could remove the possibility of a coalition-led minority government led by Peter Dutton as conservative voters are compelled to follow a rogue party aimed at replicating the Trump philosophy.’
Its website has an application portal for potential candidates, requiring a federal police check, a $100 nomination fee and a short personal biography, followed by a series of questions.
The deadline for applications closes on at the end of February.
It will be the last time Mr Palmer is able to splurge huge sums of cash on an election campaign due to new donation and spending caps coming into force next year.
In 2022, Mr Palmer spent over $120 million on the campaign and the United Australia Party candidates received over 600,000 votes in the lower house and over half a million in the Senate.
‘For too long, Australians have suffered from a Labor and Liberal duopoly of power supported by the Greens and now the Teals,’ a statement on the new party’s temporary website reads
It will be the last time Mr Palmer is able to splurge huge sums of cash on an election campaign due to new donation and spending caps coming into force next year
However, it only resulted in the party securing one senate seat, currently held by controversial senator Ralph Babet.
Prime Minister Anthony Albanese was immediately dismissive of Mr Palmer’s new party when asked about it on Wednesday morning.
‘A bloke who spends over $100million to deliver one senate seat with a bloke who sits in the corner and just engages in conspiracy theories I don’t think represents value for money,’ the Mr Albanese said.
‘People are entitled to run but it’s a distortion of democracy when you have someone spending $100million on a campaign right around the country.
‘I’ve seen these strange ads have been appearing for a month now. I’m not sure what the objective of them is…’
He added: ‘(But) if you are a serious political party the you have you’ve got to have serious policies.
‘At the moment, there’s only one serious political party at the moment in Australia (Labor).’
He later said that the ‘alternative government in this country is not Clive Palmer’.
‘The alternative government is a mob that have, after three years, produced three policies,’ Mr Albanese said.
