Federal election 2019 SA results: Palmer counts cost of bid for power

Mining magnate Clive Palmer has spent an unprecedented amount of money in the chase for a Senate spot and possibly a few other seats across the country. Early indications were that he may have wasted his money.

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It’s been an election that has turned Australia yellow – Clive Palmer yellow.

The mining magnate has spent an unprecedented amount of money – as much as $60 million – in the chase for a Queensland Senate spot and possibly a few other seats across the country.

Early indications were that he may have wasted his money.

Clive Palmer has spent an unprecedented amount of money – as much as $60 million.

The Palmer insertion into the campaign has been the most high-profile of a number of other candidates running as independents or for parties from outside the mainstream.

The importance of some of those independents may only rise in coming days if it emerges they hold the balance of power in a hung parliament.

Certainly, independents and minor parties will hold the balance of power in the Senate, making life tricky for the government. It’s just a matter of who will win the seats on the red leather of the upper house.

Palmer’s United Australia Party looks unlikely to be in the mix in South Australia. Indeed, Palmer’s $60 million spend could be the biggest waste of money since his Queensland dinosaur park, given his raw numbers in Queensland weren’t much better.

With the Liberals looking like picking up a third Senate spot, the Greens are looking the top bet for the best of the rest to snag the final seat.

It was a mixed bag on the Senate ballot this election.

A party espousing the views of far right candidate Fraser Anning, a man too racist for Pauline Hanson and too mad for Bob Katter, was running candidates. Anning’s campaign ended in tatters, winning very few votes, even in his home state of Queensland.

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2019

Adelaide

Barker

Boothby

Grey

Hindmarsh

Kingston

Makin

Mayo

Spence

Sturt

The Australian Conservatives, led by former Liberal Cory Bernardi, also struggled and rumours will grow that the Senator will attempt to return to his old party.

Across Australia a remarkable number of lower house seats were in play for independent candidates.

In South Australia, the Centre Alliance MP Rebekha Sharkie won the seat of Mayo at the last election, held it at a by-election caused by the dual citizenship crisis and last night looked set to retain the seat.

Flinders University political expert Haydon Manning said the number of independents in with a chance of winning was “unprecedented”. “I have never observed an election where you can go through such a substantial number of seats and talk about independents,’’ he said.

He also said there were a number of seats, such as Mayo, where independents or small parties were defending existing seats, such as independent Kerryn Phelps looking to defend the seat of Wentworth, which was expected to be returned to the Liberals last night.

The biggest scalp for an independent was Zali Steggall’s trouncing of former PM Tony Abbott in his NSW seat of Waringah.

The Olympic alpine skier, along with Bob Katter, Green Adam Bandt, Helen Haines in Indi in Victoria and Sharkie are going to be crucial in coming days.

Prof Manning said the shift to independents was being driven by dissatisfaction with both Labor and Liberal.

He said the Palmer campaign had targeted many of those voters with its extensive advertising campaign.

“They are really disengaged and not interested and will vote on a whim,’’ he said.

He estimated between 8 per cent and 15 per cent of voters could fall into that category, but also said it could be higher because many people had been turned off politics because of the turnover of prime ministers in the last decade.

As a result, even though a single populist right-wing party had not emerged in Australia, people had expressed their unhappiness by voting for parties such as UAP and One Nation.

The large-scale entry of a party such as UAP was bound to cause problems, though. One of its volunteers was yesterday fined by the police in Bankstown in NSW yesterday for exposing himself in a public place.

Apparently, the man had been involved in something of a stoush with some others at a polling place and decided to pull his pants down to end the argument.

The numbers who vote for the non-mainstream parties will be closely watched in coming days as pundits try to examine the minutiae of the election.

Even those parties who, in the end, had little chance of winning were able to influence the overall outcome of the poll.

The preference flow from parties such as One Nation and UAP was vital in determining who wins some of the nation’s most closely fought seats.

UAP struck a preference deal with the Liberals across the country, while One Nation is directing votes towards the Liberals in Queensland.