WA voters deserve to know where the PUP stands on the carbon and mining taxes before handing them the balance of power

Clive Palmer wants the last laugh, but WA voters won’t be taken for fools

We’re used to Clive Palmer having a laugh at the expense of journalists. Remember when he said all those claims about Greenpeace being in cahoots with the CIA were just intended as a distraction during the Queensland election campaign?

But he’s also having a lend of the entire political system.



Imagine a voter in Western Australia trying to decide whether to choose the Palmer United party – a choice which could actually determine whether PUP votes are required for the Coalition to pass every piece of legislation opposed by the Labor party and the Greens.



That legislation list will certainly include the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes and any big changes to the renewable energy target (RET).



So how will PUP vote on those?



PUP’s lead candidate in the Western Australian Senate poll, Dio Wang, issued a press statement on Tuesday saying the renewable energy target “must be maintained”.



“I believe the RET scheme should remain as it is. It worries me when the government says everything is on the table in reviewing the RET,” he said.



The existing RET was “the right scheme for maintaining and improving Australia’s environment”, he said, and the government’s recently announced review by veteran businessman Dick Warburton, a self-professed climate sceptic, was a waste of taxpayers’ money.

Sounds clear. But then Palmer himself appeared on Radio National’s Breakfast show this morning. He said he supported the existing policy, but then he said he didn’t think it should be mandatory.

Clive, the whole point of the RET is that it is mandatory. It requires electricity retailers to buy a certain number of renewable energy certificates each year. If they are not required to buy them, they won’t buy them and there won’t be a RET at all. So what is your policy?

Clive Palmer told the parliament recently his senators would definitely vote to repeal the carbon tax. “Only the Palmer United party can remove the carbon and mining taxes,” he said in a clear pitch to the voters in WA. Tony Abbott replied that he was delighted.

But Palmer later told Guardian Australia he had not changed his view that the carbon tax repeal needed to be retrospective, instead of taking effect from July as the government intends.

“I asked why he hadn’t repealed the tax from when he was elected. He still hasn’t done it, and he can’t do anything without me. He can only do something if we support it,” Palmer said. “We’ll make up our mind how we will vote when our senators take their seats.” In other words, after WA has voted.

So actually we have no clear statement about how Palmer will vote on the carbon tax repeal. The government quite obviously cannot make the tax repeal retrospective. The idea is ridiculous.

And if they did, it would be a direct boon for Palmer. His Queensland Nickel owes $8.4m in carbon tax. Palmer is challenging the tax in the high court. He abstained from the carbon tax repeal vote in the House of Representatives because he had a conflict of interest, but he insists his senators would not need to abstain as they have no personal conflict of interest. Except possibly that they represent a party funded by him and run by him.

So his senators – former rugby league player Glenn (“the brick with eyes”) Lazarus, Tasmanian Jacqui Lambie and Victorian Motoring Enthusiast Ricky Muir, with whom he has entered an alliance – will vote on the carbon tax repeal, but we can’t be absolutely sure how.

And now his position on the mining tax repeal is also uncertain. He supports it, but only if the government keeps the income support bonus for the children of veterans killed or injured overseas. The distinction between the removal of the $200-a-year income support benefit for veteran’s children and the general removal of the same benefit for Newstart recipients or Abstudy recipients or people on sickness benefits was made by Labor in parliament this week.



Removing the bonus for the kids of veterans would cost just $260,000. Removing it for everyone would cost $1.1bn over four years. Abbott says this has to happen because it was funded from the proceeds of the mining tax. Labor clearly wanted to highlight the impact of Abbott government cuts ahead of the WA election without being accused of blowing a hole in the budget.



But now this tactic has been embraced by Palmer and has apparently become the benchmark for the entire mining tax repeal.



The result of the 5 April election for six WA senators could potentially decide whether the government needs to rely on PUP for every single piece of legislation that is opposed by Labor and the Greens, or whether it will be able to pick and choose between a range of crossbench senators including Independent senator Nick Xenophon and DLP senator John Madigan.

WA voters are deciding whether Palmer is right when he says Tony Abbott needs PUP for almost everything he wants to do.



And they have no real basis upon which to make the decision. Palmer might be having a laugh, but it’s really not funny.

