United Australia Party texts come back to bite Labor

Opposition leader Bill Shorten compared dealing with Clive Palmer and some minor parties to “lying with dogs”, but leaked texts reveal a Labor Senator directly sought preference talks with the billionaire’s party.

OPPOSITION Leader Bill Shorten compared dealing with Clive Palmer and some minor parties to “lying with dogs”, but leaked texts reveal a Labor Senator directly sought preference talks with the billionaire’s party.

Text messages circulating the United Australia Party, seen by The Sunday Mail, show NSW Senator Deborah O’Neill directly seeking to discuss preferences with a Palmer operative.

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“I’ve got candidates preferencing. Keen to talk ASAP,” she texted on Wednesday.

Senate candidate Clive Palmer at a pro-Adani rally in Mackay on Saturday. Picture: Supplied

A Labor spokesman said Labor had no formal negotiations with Clive Palmer on preferences. A campaign source suggested calls may have been made, without authority, in an attempt to gather intelligence on what other parties were doing.

But Prime Minister Scott Morrison also came under fire for not saying Mr Palmer should pay his workers their unpaid entitlements or the $66.8 million owed to the Commonwealth, after the Liberal Party struck a preference deal with him.

It comes as Labor targets the Coalition over its deal with Palmer and the Nationals preferencing with One Nation as a recipe for chaos.

“If we have a Morrison-Hanson-Palmer government, then it will be the most chaotic in Australia’s history,” senior Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese said.

Mr Albanese said Labor was “not negotiating with these parties”, while Mr Shorten was more circumspect.

“Whether or not there were conversations, I would not sign off on any deal with Mr Palmer until he resolves the issues of the tens of millions of dollars he owes taxpayers and workers,” Mr Shorten said.

“Imagine what we don’t get done in this country under a Morrison-Palmer-Hanson government. There’s an old saying and I think that Mr Morrison is going to learn the truth — if you lie down with dogs, you will get fleas.”

Mr Morrison would not say if the billionaire should pay back the $7 million owed to his workers and more than $66.8 million taxpayers covered in their unpaid entitlements.

“Clive Palmer is making his own statements on those matters,” he said.

Mr Palmer has said he will pay the workers, after the election, if they fill out a form.