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Articles on Palmer United Party

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Jacqui Lambie quitting the Palmer United Party means the party no longer has the numbers in its own right to block legislation. AAP/Alan Porritt

Lambie goes her own way

Jacqui Lambie has finally quit the Palmer United Party but vowed to continue her opposition to government proposals for university fee deregulation, a Medicare co-payment and welfare measures that “hit…
Clive Palmer says the Palmer United Party is investigating Senator Jacqui Lambie. AAP/Julian Smith

Someone planted Lambie in PUP, Palmer alleges

Clive Palmer has suggested renegade Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie was deliberately planted in PUP to disrupt it. He said PUP was currently investigating Lambie, including how she got endorsement…
Odd one out? Jacqui Lambie walks past her Palmer United Party colleagues earlier this week. AAP/Lukas Coch

Lacking a unifying purpose or policies, PUP is falling apart

After holding itself together for four-and-a-half months, potentially fatal cracks are appearing in the Palmer United Party (PUP). With fellow senators claiming that she refuses to attend party meetings…
PUP leader Clive Palmer has told Jacqui Lambie to challenge his leadership if she has doubts about the party’s direction. AAP/Tracey Nearmy

Palmer tells ‘drama queen’ Lambie to put up or shut up

Clive Palmer has lashed out at his Palmer United Party senator Jacqui Lambie, calling her a “drama queen” and telling her to challenge his leadership or “get on with the job” of representing her voters…
Has firebrand Tasmanian senator Jacqui Lambie fallen into the populists’ trap of political overreach? AAP/Lukas Coch

Loose cannon Lambie risks being hoist by her own populist petard

Apart from the brouhaha over some Victorian schools bumping one minute’s silence to before or after the traditional 11am, Tuesday’s Remembrance Day commemorations went off without a hitch, soberly recognising…
Environment minister Greg Hunt and Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer have agreed to an inquiry into an emissions trading scheme. AAP/Alan Porritt

Government agrees to inquiry into emissions trading scheme

The government has been forced to agree to an 18-month inquiry into an emissions trading scheme – despite declaring it would never implement one – in order to get its “direct action” carbon reduction plan…
Under a Greens-PUP deal, the senate inquiry into the Queensland government will investigate coal seam gas approvals granted under the previous Queensland government. Jeremy Buckingham/Flickr

Greens-Palmer deal: a roadblock for environmental one-stop shop

The Greens have secured a deal with the Palmer United Party (PUP) and Labor that effectively kills the federal government’s plan to hand its environmental approval powers to the states under its “one-stop…
Ever since arriving in Canberra in July, Senator Jacqui Lambie has had the media in a spin. AAP Image/Alan Porritt

A Lambie loose in the top paddock of Parliament

If a movie is ever made about the life of the well-known PUP senator from Tasmania, we can be sure it won’t be titled “Silence of the Lambie”. After a little over two months in public life, quiet and stillness…
Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie is willing to take a DNA test to prove her Indigenous heritage – but would that do any good? AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Explainer: can a DNA test reveal if you’re an Indigenous Australian?

Palmer United Party Senator Jacqui Lambie recently created controversy by claiming in her first speech to Parliament that going back six generations, she is related to the renowned Tasmanian Aboriginal…
Tony Abbott may have planted a few trees, but he’s also sought to bury many of Australia’s environmental safeguards. Britta Campion/AAPImage

Abbott’s environment agenda is even harsher than he promised

Before the 2013 election, Tony Abbott gave us fair warning that he would turn the clock back on the environment. As promised, his government has devoted itself to short-term economics and the sort of hardline…
PUP leader Clive Palmer said he regretted “any hurt or anguish” his comments might have caused. AAP/Alan Porritt

Clive Palmer to Chinese: I’m sorry

PUP leader Clive Palmer has made a grovelling apology to the Chinese for his extraordinary outburst on television, in which he referred to them as “bastards” and “mongrels”. In a letter to the Chinese…
In the media spotlight: Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer outside the Senate chamber at Parliament House this week. Lukas Coch/AAP

Palmer’s populist carbon tax ploy won’t cut power bills

If you heard Clive Palmer and his Palmer United senators say today that they will only scrap the carbon tax with stronger rules to protect consumers, you might have thought they sounded quite fair and…
Friend to the battlers: Clive Palmer says he’ll oppose the repeal of a superannuation top up scheme for low incomes earners. AAP/Alan Porritt

Clive Palmer, the unlikely friend of low income earners

The low income superannuation contribution is rapidly becoming a case study in the perils of linking unrelated policy initiatives. The scheme, a federal government contribution of up to $500 to people…
By working collaboratively with the new crossbench senators, the government could expand its thinking and avoid being captured by a narrow worldview. AAP/Lukas Coch

The new Senate could be Abbott’s obstacle – or an opportunity

From today, Australia has a new-look Senate. Twelve new and 64 returning senators will take their seats on the red chamber’s plush leather benches for next week’s sitting. With them comes a major shift…
If Clive Palmer wants one thing and his new bloc of senators another, then the Palmer United Party may find itself less united than its name suggests. AAP/Paul Miller

Heeding history: will Clive and his senators last the distance?

A soldier, an engineer and a rugby league player walk into federal parliament. It sounds like the opening line of a bawdy joke, or the premise of a reality TV show. But on July 1, three senators from the…
Federal MP Clive Palmer vowed to block the budget’s ‘horrific cuts’ in his Queensland Media Club address this week. AAP/Dan Peled

Populist Palmer drops his jester act to appeal to middle Australia

It looks like there’s a new Clive Palmer in town. At Monday’s Queensland Media Club lunch in Brisbane, where the Palmer United Party (PUP) leader talked down the federal budget and spruiked his own ideas…
Indigenous MPs were in the Labor cabinet in 2008, then defected to the Country Liberals. Now Clive Palmer has given them a vehicle to solidify the Aboriginal vote. Tara Ravens/AAP

PUP’s recruits cause a stir – and ripples may spread beyond NT

The news that the three “rebel” Indigenous members of the NT Legislative Assembly had joined the Palmer United Party (PUP) has created national interest as well as a considerable stir in the Northern Territory…
Despite their party’s potentially pivotal role in climate policy, Clive Palmer (left) and Jacqui Lambie have both misconstrued basic facts about climate change. AAP Image/Paul Miller

Palmer United Party needs to go back to school on carbon facts

When you ask Australians what proportion of climate scientists agree on the reality of human-caused global warming, the average answer is around 58%, despite evidence that the true size of the consensus…
The PUP bloc will only be able to act on issues the major parties disagree on. AAP Image/Paul Miller

Why Palmer’s pups are unlikely to block the Senate

If you believe the recent media reports about the composition of the Senate from July 1 next year, you’d think we were facing three years of the Clive Palmer’s Palmer United Party (PUP) “bloc” holding…

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