Clive Palmer no enthusiast for sharing alliance details

CLIVE Palmer has tightened his grip on the balance of power in the Senate by signing a deal with lone senator-elect Ricky Muir.

CLIVE Palmer has tightened his grip on the balance of power in the Senate by signing a deal with lone senator-elect Ricky Muir but the details of the pact that could determine the fate of key legislation have not been exposed to public scrutiny.

At a shambolic, 11-minute press conference in Sydney yesterday, Mr Palmer announced that Mr Muir would form a voting bloc with the three senators-elect from PUP, although Mr Palmer refused to publicly discuss the memorandum of understanding signed by the two parties, or answer questions about policy differences between PUP and Mr Muir's Australian Motoring Enthusiast Party.

The Australian Electoral Commission yesterday announced it would undertake a recount of above-the-line senate votes in Western Australia, a move that could potentially see PUP candidate Zhenya Wang lose his senate spot to the Greens.

But Mr Palmer's recruitment of Mr Muir means the government will always need to negotiate with the newly established voting bloc in order to pass legislation opposed by Labor and the Greens.

Mr Palmer yesterday issued a direct political threat to the government's leader of the Senate, Eric Abetz. "He'll have to negotiate with our team, or he won't be negotiating at all," he said.

And he threatened a legislative "gridlock" unless the government granted his party the same resources, in terms of staff, as the Greens. "If we don't get any resources, you can well imagine it'll take longer for the three people to do their job and maybe you'll only get one bill through a year," he told the ABC's Lateline.

Speaking at a press conference in Brunei, Tony Abbott was diplomatic in his response to Mr Palmer's warning. "I'm confident that everyone in this parliament very well understands that the new government has a clear mandate," he said, rejecting Mr Palmer's demand for greater resources.

The Australian revealed yesterday that Mr Palmer recently hosted a meeting of several new senators in Brisbane, where the option of voting as a bloc was discussed. The Coalition, with 33 senators in the 76-seat upper house from July, will need the vote of six of the eight independent senators to pass legislation opposed by Labor and the Greens.

Interim Labor leader Chris Bowen said that while alliances were not unheard of in Australian politics, the deal between PUP and Mr Muir was "more on the unusual side" and queried the lack of detail about the memorandum of understanding.

"The important thing here is transparency, for Mr Palmer and Senator Muir to be very clear about what this arrangement, what this deal entails, about what the process will be," Mr Bowen told ABC's 7.30. "Will they actually always be voting together? Will they be voting separately on some instances? Who will actually make the decisions?"

Greens leader Christine Milne, whose party's negotiating power will be greatly reduced in the new Senate, also accused the two parties of a secret backroom deal.

"The key question here is: what backroom deal did the Motoring Enthusiast Party get in this cabal with Clive Palmer and what are the policies they have both agreed to support?" Senator Milne said.

Independent senator Nick Xenophon questioned the new arrangement, asking whether any "side deals" had been struck. "What's in Clive Palmer's interest is not necessarily in the nation's interest," he said.

Democratic Labour Party senator John Madigan described the alliance as a farce in which Mr Muir looked like "a rabbit stuck in the headlights".

"It doesn't bode well," Senator Madigan said. "What is actually going on here?"

Mr Palmer, who is waiting on a recount to determine whether he has won the Queensland lower house seat of Fairfax, refused to release the wording of the agreement, saying that holding a press conference indicated there was nothing secretive about it.

Mr Muir described the agreement as designed to facilitate the working of parliament. "It's our intention to vote together with the Palmer United Party in the Senate," he said. "This will provide the government and the people of Australia with certainty."

He said PUP had agreed to support his party's motoring policies and he would support PUP initiatives. "Together I can do so much more than I could have achieved alone," he said.

His party's policies, as detailed on its website, consist of one or two paragraph statements on driver safety, vehicle maintenance, better roads and off-road vehicles. Mr Palmer's policies include tax cuts, abolishing the carbon and mining taxes, allowing asylum-seekers to come by air and letting companies to pay tax annually instead of quarterly.

Mr Muir's stance was not well received by the former Victorian leader of the micro-party, Scott McDonald, who was sacked last week. Mr McDonald said a meeting of members next week could reject the deal and expel Mr Muir from the party.

"I feel a little bit sorry for Ricky 'cause he's kind of been a puppet stuck in the middle of something he doesn't understand," he said.

Another senator-elect, the Liberal Democrat's David Leyonhjelm said he would not have agreed to a deal with PUP, but he did not object to Mr Muir doing so.

He said he did not know why they had decided to formalise an agreement, as the minor parties, including Family First's Bob Day, had an understanding they would work together where possible. Mr Leyonhjelm said his membership was closer to the Motoring Enthusiast Party's than PUP's was.

Mr Leyonhjelm is an official of the Outdoor Recreation Party.

Political consultant Glenn Druery said last night he had been approached by the Motoring Enthusiast Party to advise whether Mr Muir should sign the agreement with PUP. "I think it was a very good move for these guys.

"Let's be logical about this they're going to the Senate and they'll sit there on their own. Independents and minor parties can put up private member's bills but it's not that easy," he said.

"If they form with another group and become part of the balance of power, they can wield more influence."