Palmer targets Dutton in $90 million MAGA-style election pitch

Mining tycoon Clive Palmer plans to spend about $90 million on a Trump-inspired “Make Australia Great Again” platform that could steal votes from Opposition Leader Peter Dutton, as he plots a High Court challenge to take down new laws against bankrolling elections.

Australia’s biggest political spender threw a wildcard into national politics just months from an April or May poll, announcing on Wednesday a plan to run candidates in all lower house teal and Liberal-held seats and potentially many Labor electorates.

Clive Palmer at a press conference at Parliament House on Wednesday.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

The aspirants will run for a party called Trumpet of Patriots. It was rebadged last year, in what Palmer suggested was a nod to the US president. Palmer has effectively taken over the micro party after his old outfit, United Australia Party, was struck out over an administrative error.

“As Dutton said, he’s no Donald Trump,” Palmer told this masthead, referencing Dutton’s remarks in a 60 Minutes program on Sunday. “I say what’s wrong with being Donald Trump?”

“You don’t want to have a repeat of conservative governments in the past. If you’re a conservative, it doesn’t mean you don’t have to do things.”

Borrowing from the US president, Palmer said his candidates would push for laws mandating two genders only and slashing government spending like Elon Musk. Echoing right-wing populist talking points, he criticised the intelligence of journalists, promoted alternative treatments for COVID, slammed Indigenous acknowledgements of country and said taking in too many migrants “destroys our infrastructure, roads, schools and hospitals”.

Targeting the Coalition, which Palmer said lacked the aggression of right-wing parties around the globe, is a new turn for Palmer, whose previous $100 million campaign focused on Labor scuppering Labor.

United Australia Party received 4 per cent of first preference lower house votes in 2022, highlighting the risk for the Coalition if Palmer’s party can again divert conservative votes by harnessing local support for Trump. Many of the votes could still flow back to the Coalition on preferences.

The lateness of Palmer’s announcement may mean the venture, spearheaded by lead candidate Suellen Wrightson, fizzles out.

Palmer revealed he had proposed to join forces with Pauline Hanson’s One Nation last year but the deal collapsed because he said Hanson allegedly wanted to be “to be president [of One Nation] for life, like Idi Amin”, a reference to the former Ugandan dictator. The Australian Financial Review reported that Hanson’s chief of staff, James Ashby, said the president-for-life suggestion was “a Clive furphy”.

Laws pushed through parliament earlier this month partly targeted at Palmer put a limit on political donations from the 2028 election.

The rules put a $90 million national cap on how much a major party can spend, and Palmer said it was “fair to say” he would spend around $90 million at this election.

“Fairfax ads are not cheap. You’ve gotta pay for them,” he said, referring to his yellow full-page newspaper advertisements that ran during the 2022 election campaign.

He said he “absolutely intended” to challenge the donation laws in the High Court after this year’s election.

Prime Minister Anthony Albanese ridiculed Palmer’s latest push.

“A bloke who spends over $100 million 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,” Albanese said.

Palmer said the effectiveness of his spending should not be judged on how many of his candidates were elected, but rather how his messages influenced public opinion.

The Coalition was contacted for comment.

Cut through the noise of federal politics with news, views and expert analysis. Subscribers can sign up to our weekly Inside Politics newsletter.