Outgoing MP and party leader Clive Palmer has launched his Palmer United campaign at a 15-minute event railing against a Labor-Liberal alliance and pledging to protect the Australian way of life before refusing to take media questions.
The Palmer event coincided with the New South Wales Greens launch in Sydney, ahead of the official start to the Labor campaign on Sunday. The Liberals launch are due to launch their campaign next Sunday.
Palmer told the Brisbane crowd his Palmer United party (PUP) – which he credited with abolishing the GP co-payment and protecting the Schoolkids’ Bonus – would regain the balance of power in the Senate.
“It was only through treachery and disregard for our democratic principles that the Labor-Liberal alliance was able to undermine us,” he said.
Palmer said it had also “played a key role in removing Campbell Newman as premier of Queensland” and protected the state’s assets from sale.
“The Liberal and the Labor parties and the centralised media have sought to destroy our party,” he said. “In doing so they have challenged the very foundation of Australian democracy.
“Palmer United stands, as the last sentry at the gate, defending you and your democracy and keeping the Liberal-Labor alliance in check.”
Major PUP platforms include ending entitlements for retired politicians and setting up a federal anti-corruption commission.
The heavily scripted launch was punctuated by a live band singing True Blue, Talkin’ Bout a Revolution and C’mon, Aussie, C’mon.
Candidates from each state, including Western Australia’s Dio Wang and James McDonald, standing in Queensland, were introduced one by one to deliver short pledges.
“Help us to help you by voting one for Palmer United in the Senate,” Wang said as Palmer mouthed the words behind him.
The team walked out after 15 minutes without taking questions from journalists.
Palmer’s media adviser said there would be no press conference because “that’s just what he wanted to do”.
Meanwhile, at Sydney’s Enmore theatre the Greens leader, Richard Di Natale, told the party’s NSW campaign launch that climate change was an existential challenge of this generation and “everything else pales” in comparison.
“Unless we tackle dangerous global warming then everything else is background noise,” Di Natale said.
He also called for a treaty as the only way to “truly reconcile with our Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander brothers and sisters”.
The NSW Greens raised almost $5,000 in donations at their campaign launch.
State MPs Jenny Leong, Jamie Parker, Mehreen Faruqi and David Shoebridge and Senator Lee Rhiannon were among the 100 supporters at the Enmore Theatre.
“There are dangerous health implications under climate change if we don’t act,” Di Natale told the crowd.
Speaking after the event, Di Natale also called for the next government to “ditch the Tony Abbot view of the world” and to have a vote on marriage equality without a plebiscite.
Affordable housing, an end to federal funding of Sydney’s Westconnex project, a move towards treaty with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people, and the closure of offshore detention centres were among the Greens policies spruiked at the event.
Dawn Walker, the Greens candidate for the New South Wales seat of Richmond, which Justine Elliot has held for Labor since 2004, said she would introduce a bill for a ban on fracking as her first act, should she be elected.
Walker accused the National party of “walking away” from the community over coal seam gas.
The launch was held in the seat of Grayndler, where the Greens are hoping to unseat incumbent Labor MP Anthony Albanese. They also hoped to take a few seats in Victoria, but are now facing a deal made by the Liberal party to preference Labor in inner city seats in return for Labor preferences in rural seats to fend of the Nationals.
Last week the Greens sparked controversy by preferencing the Christian Democrats – whose party leader Fred Nile has labeled homosexuality a “mental disorder” – over the Liberal candidate in the seat of Sydney.
The Liberal party has put forward Geoffrey Winters, a 27-year-old lawyer and gay Indigenous man, who supports marriage equality and Indigenous constitutional recognition, as its candidate.
The Greens later reversed the decision after public backlash.
The Greens are preferencing Labor ahead of the Coalition in 139 of 150 seats, and issuing open how-to-vote cards in the remaining 11.
Australian Associated Press contributed to this report
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