Clive Palmer wins Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax, says 'goodbye' Campbell Newman

Updated

Clive Palmer, declared the winner of the federal seat of Fairfax after a recount of votes was finalised yesterday, says one of his first priorities as an MP will be putting the spotlight on the Queensland government.

Mr Palmer, who won the Sunshine Coast seat with a final margin of 53 votes, condemned attacks by Premier Campbell Newman on the state's judiciary and said he would reveal evidence of corruption by the state's LNP government.

"My election to Parliament must sound an ominous warning to Campbell Newman and his cohorts," Mr Palmer told 7.30.

"The only separation of powers we want is Campbell Newman out of Parliament," he said, later adding: "Goodbye Campbell Newman."

The Palmer United Party leader's eventual victory in Fairfax was confirmed yesterday, with the Australian Electoral Commission set to make a formal announcement today.

It came after the AEC ordered a recount earlier this month after Mr Palmer finished seven votes ahead of the Liberal National Party's Ted O'Brien.

The result came as the AEC ordered an independent investigation into the loss of more than 1,300 ballots in the Senate recount in Western Australia.

The fate of Mr Palmer's senator-elect Zhenya Dio Wang and Labor's Louise Pratt hangs on the result of that recount.

But the AEC has confirmed that 1,375 votes which had initially been counted cannot be found.

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Mr Palmer claimed that the missing Senate votes proved the AEC was trying to rig the results of the federal election.

And he said that while he was pleased that the Fairfax recount had been finalised, the process had taken far too long, with too many mistakes.

"In my case in the seat of Fairfax, the first count I won by 36 votes, the second count I won by seven votes, and now I have won by 53 votes," he said.

"Now we know all those counts are not the same, so some of them must be wrong, so it does highlight the fact that our electoral system is not right."

He repeated his earlier claims that the electoral process was corrupt.

"Even though I won the seat, I don't think it's the right sort of process that Australians expect," he said.

"I have to look at the facts. It's a corrupt process, there's no doubt about that."

Mr Palmer said the AEC should look overseas for a better voting model.

"In the US, you have a punch card, you can go in to the computer and by 6:30pm you have got the result," he said.

"You haven't got to wait two months and spend millions of dollars of taxpayers' money which would be better spent on something else."

Fairfax is the final Lower House seat to be decided following September's federal election.

The full recount involved more than 89,000 ballot papers, with the final result showing Mr Palmer winning with 42,330 votes ahead of Mr O'Brien, with 42,277 votes.

Palmer's conflict of interest claims disputed

Meanwhile, the Federal Opposition has disputed suggestions by Mr Palmer that only Ministers can have a conflict of interest.

The magnate has dismissed the idea that he might be influenced by his business interests when voting on legislation.

"Well that's just rubbish of course," he says.

"As a Member of Parliament, you don't have a conflict of interest - only if you're a Minister. That's what the legal cases say."

However, Opposition frontbencher Anthony Albanese says that's wrong.

"Of course it is the case that when you are involved in public life you can have conflicts of interest, whether you are and MP or a minister," he says.

"So Mr Palmer's got to be cognisant of that fact."

Still, Mr Palmer will make an interesting addition to the House of Representatives, Mr Albanese says, adding that Prime Minister Tony Abbott was highly critical of Labor’s negotiations with the crossbench MPs during the minority parliament.

"I look forward to Tony Abbott's rhetoric about chaos and tails wagging dogs, because he's off negotiating with Clive Palmer in order to get legislation through," Mr Albanese said.

"He [Mr Abbott] might even have to talk to the Labor Party."

Topics: government-and-politics, maroochydore-4558, qld, australia

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