Clive Palmer says his United Australia Party will not contest WA state election
ABC News
January 11 2020
Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer says his United Australia Party will not contest the WA state election in March.
Key points:
Clive Palmer says he'll also drop a defamation case against the Premier
The Premier's office called on him to withdraw "all his legal actions"
WA Liberal leader Zak Kirkup has welcomed Mr Palmer's decisions
In a statement released on Sunday, Mr Palmer said his party would not field any candidates and that he would be withdrawing a defamation case against Premier Mark McGowan.
Mr McGowan's office said it was yet to received any notice of the claims having been removed.
Mr Palmer's decision comes after United Australia Party (UAP) failed to win a single seat at the Queensland state election in October, and after he lost a legal bid in November to have WA's hard border deemed unconstitutional.
In his statement, Mr Palmer said Mr McGowan could "breathe easy" knowing his party would not be standing.
A spokeswoman for Mark McGowan said Mr Palmer had not ruled out running a negative ad campaign against the Government.(ABC News)
"Mark McGowan must be under enormous pressure so I don't want to cause him any more stress during the festive season," he said.
"The WA Premier has repeatedly attacked me and still faces defamation actions. I have had my lawyers write to him over Christmas saying that I will remove those actions even though everyone knows he is guilty.
"Christmas is a time for forgiveness and mercy walks hand in hand with justice.
"The Liberal Party in WA has the chance to be better than it has been and stand on its own feet."
A spokeswoman for Mr McGowan released a statement saying West Australians would "never forget that Clive Palmer tried to pull down the border against health advice and is still trying to take the state for $30 billion".
"The Liberal Party sided with Clive Palmer and now he will do whatever he can to support the Liberals and Nationals at the election," the statement said.
"Clive Palmer [has] not ruled out spending millions of dollars running a negative advertising campaign against the State Government, similar to his previous ads Western Australians had to endure."
The spokeswoman also said Mr Palmer should withdraw "all his legal actions against WA and the Premier".
Liberals 'won't be taking' Palmer help
WA Liberal Party leader Zak Kirkup said while his party had done deals in previous elections with the UAP, he was glad the party would not contest the election.
"I think it's important that Mr Palmer and any other shallow millionaire who has too much time or money on their hands doesn't try and use the WA democracy as a plaything," he said.
"The Liberal Party won't be taking any money or support from him and we hope every other political party in WA makes the same commitments so that we can show Mr Palmer the reality that he isn't welcome in our state."
Mr Kirkup said he was also in support of Mr Palmer's intention to drop his defamation action against the Premier.
"What we see from the likes of Clive Palmer is continual hot air and bluster and very little substance, so I welcome Clive Palmer's continual withdrawal from West Australian and I hope Australian politics," he said.
"This is what we expect from Clive. He says one thing and often does another. It's up to us here as the major political parties to stand united against Mr Palmer's influence."
Forum
Pages: 1
Clive Palmer Will Not Contest WA State Election (Read 391 times)
