The reduction of the Palmer United Party to rump status in federal Parliament – affirmed by the resignation of Senator Glenn Lazarus last week – marks one of the swifter declines in the fortunes of a minor party in Australian political history. In July last year, after the arrival in Canberra for the swearing-in of the PUP's three new senators, party founder Clive Palmer was being acclaimed in the media and elsewhere as the man with the power to either wave the Abbott government's legislative program through the Senate or hold it up according to PUP whim. That no-one really knew how Mr Palmer or his novice senators might vote – despite the former's background in conservative Queensland politics – only added to the PUP's novelty and mystique. For a time, the Queenslander was at the front and centre of the political stage, doing deals to win the Senate support of the Motoring Enthusiasts' Ricky Muir, dining with Malcolm Turnbull, and discussing emissions trading models with former US vice-president Al Gore.
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Mr Palmer's approach to setting up his party was unique. Not for him the tedious business of setting up branches and running pre-selections for candidates for public office. After satisfying Australian Electoral Commission demands for the requisite 500 signatures to establish a new party, Mr Palmer set about running the PUP as if it was one of his many businesses. For the 2013 election, he personally chose candidates to contest all 150 House of Representatives seats, as well as the Senate. It was an audacious strategy given minor party candidates rarely win House of Representatives seats, let alone en masse. Mr Palmer, however, surprised many observers (and probably himself) by winning the previously safe Coalition seat of Fairfax, centred on Queensland's Sunshine Coast. Profile, name recognition, and an ability to buy election publicity undoubtedly helped his candidacy, although a general electoral feeling of dissatisfaction with the major parties aided his cause too. However, Mr Palmer's goal of establishing a sizable parliamentary presence to prosecute his various political aims was always contingent on a strong Senate campaign.
Aided again by the profile of its leader and to some extent the electoral system, the PUP returned senators from Queensland, WA and Tasmania. It was an extraordinary result given the party's relative inexperience and its lack of a large membership and support base. In retrospect, it was a high-water mark which the PUP was always going to have trouble sustaining. The skills needed to successfully mine a vein of public discontent or yearning are very different to those needed to keep a party united and effective in Parliament, and while Mr Palmer has an engaging manner, his management of the PUP has fallen well short of what was required.
The ideological glue that binds the major parties and enables them to sing more or less from the same hymn sheet is generally lacking in minor parties. And the ideological underpinning of the PUP has never seemed particularly clear or distinct. Administration, staffing and strategy have also proved to be fertile ground for discontent since 2013, hardly surprising given Mr Palmer's insistence on overseeing all such arrangements.
Jacqui Lambie's outspokenness and independence of mind was something Mr Palmer clearly failed to predict, and though his anger and irritation at her defection from the party (and that of Senator Lazarus) is fully justifiable, most of the blame for their departure attaches to him. It was Mr Palmer's failure to articulate a consistent policy framework and to run the PUP along ostensibly democratic lines that laid the groundwork for the early exits of Senators Lambie and Lazarus. His unwillingness to give the party his full and complete attention was clearly a factor too. Then again, Mr Palmer's CV is full of ventures that were embarked upon in a blaze of energy and expectation but which were quietly shelved when he lost interest or moved on to the next grand plan.
With his party's Senate representation now reduced to one – Senator Zhenya Wang of Western Australia – and his influence in the House of Representatives marginal at best, Mr Palmer's days of parliamentary grand-standing would now appear to be behind him. But his habit of using money to highlight issues dear to his heart means we haven't heard the last of Mr Palmer.
