About 1,000 United Australia Party (UAP) faithful gathered at Palmer Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast on Saturday afternoon for what proved to be a marathon election campaign launch.
Afterwards, party chairman Clive Palmer vowed to place the Greens last on how-to-vote cards and said they would not preference major parties at all in the Senate.
The UAP event began shortly after 2pm with a replay screening of Mr Palmer's National Press Club address from April 7.
This was followed by a string of the UAP's election advertisements played back-to-back.
A live band then came onstage, helping to lift the energy in the room by introducing a folksy feel with their version of songs like Talkin' Bout A Revolution and Land Down Under, topping it off with a revised C'mon Aussie C'mon, replacing the names of famous cricketers with those of various UAP candidates from across the country.
With the crowd now awake after staring at screens for almost an hour, it seemed like the time to bring in the party's main players.
What followed instead was several more minutes of videos of previous party rallies and statements by candidates before Mr Palmer finally made it to the stage to enthusiastic applause.
Mr Palmer was taken to hospital briefly the previous day after trying to jump onstage during rehearsal, but instead falling and hitting his head.
This time there was no jumping.
Mr Palmer repeated the UAP's main promises, focusing on future interest rates and claiming that nearly 80 per cent of Australians will lose their mortgage from default if interest rates rise to 6 per cent — he did not elaborate on whether this was the official rate or the rate charged by commercial banks.
He said the UAP would pay back Australian debt in 20 years by placing a 15 per cent export licence on iron ore, to be paid by overseas buyers, with money quarantined for national debt.
Mr Palmer introduced party leader Craig Kelly as "Australia's next prime minister".
Asked later about the likelihood of the UAP winning any lower house seats, Mr Kelly said polls were showing a "huge number of people who are not going to support the two old parties — the Labor and Liberal parties — they're looking for alternatives".
Addressing the faithful, Mr Kelly covered much of the same ground as Mr Palmer, and again railed against lockdowns and vaccine mandates and a "Liberal-Labor coalition".
He said the UAP would:
- Cap "home loan interest rates" at 3 per cent for five years
- Abolish fringe benefits tax
- Abolish and forgive HECs debt
- Increase the pension for retirees by $180 a fortnight
- Demand $1 trillion in Australian super be reinvested in Australia
Mr Palmer said the federal government could take control of official interest rates back from the Reserve Bank.
He did not say how rates set by commercial banks factored into this scenario.
Mr Kelly railed against what he called a "mass biometric surveillance" plan underway by the federal government, calling it a "dystopian nightmare" and saying it is "with us today".
He said he believed they had put forward "a real third choice for Australians at this election".
After the launch, Mr Palmer was asked who would be the focus of UAP ads this time around.
"Everyone's going to cop it," he replied.
Mr Kelly said their ads had criticised both major parties equally.
Asked about UAP preferences, Mr Palmer said the Greens would be on the bottom of their ticket.
"I'd say in the Senate, where I'm Senate team leader, there's only six boxes where you have to put your preference recommendations and Liberal, Labor and the Greens won't be in any of those boxes," Mr Palmer said.
On his way out, he said he was feeling OK after his fall.
"My feet hit the edge so I fell backwards and hit my head. I was knocked out for 20 seconds [before] I came to. I felt OK," he said.
"They took me off and got me a scan and the scan said I did have a brain in there, that was confirmed, that was very good.
"I think it's because I played rugby league as a young boy. I think I've got a bit of toughness in there."
