Australia's wealthiest MP, Clive Palmer - whose party will hold the balance of power in the Senate from July - has claimed his phone has been bugged for more than a decade.

The billionaire mining magnate directed his first ever question in Question Time to the Prime Minister, asking Tony Abbott: "Are our parliamentary offices bugged?"

A bemused Mr Abbott said he would not comment on operational security matters, but added that a specific warrant would be required to tap anyone's phone.

"I can assure the Member for Fairfax that he can speak in peace, so to speak, without any fear that anything untoward is going on," the Prime Minister concluded.

But at a press conference this afternoon, the Queensland MP said it was a "well-known fact" that ASIO tapped the phones of Australia's wealthiest people.

"I've had my phone bugged now for about 10 or 15 years, as well as my emails intercepted," he said.

"I've got nothing personally to worry about being bugged, you know. It's the principle that matters."

He said MPs needed to know their offices were safe from surveillance.

"The Prime Minister answered my question by saying he doesn't comment on operational intelligence," Mr Palmer said.

"We're not another country - we're representatives of the Australian people."

Mr Palmer's mobile phone rang during the press conference and he jokingly answered saying: "How are you going ASIO? Do you hear the little clicks on the phone?"

The businessman said he would have his office "swept" for bugs, but would not organise it by phone "or they'll know we're coming and just turn it off".

He called today "the first day of Abbott-gate" in reference to the Nixon-era Watergate scandal in the United States.

Palmer calls for original WA Senate result to be upheld

Mr Palmer's party, the Palmer United Party (PUP) won three Senate seats in the initial count of the upper house results.

He has also signed a deal with the Victorian Senator for the Motoring Enthusiasts Party to form a powerful voting bloc when the new Senate forms on July 1, 2014.

But the botched WA recount, ordered because of the knife-edge result in that state, reduced the PUP to two Senators, one each in Queensland and Tasmania.

Mr Palmer says his party has lodged a petition with the High Court to reinstate the original result.

But he has conceded that there will probably have to be a fresh election for the Senate in WA next year.

"We're saying the people of WA and the Government doesn't want to spend millions of dollars having another election," he said.

"We should just reinstate the first count because the recount wasn't valid. That's what we say.

"But most likely because of all the attention and everything, I think it'll probably go to an election."

The recount of the WA Senate vote was declared invalid after the Electoral Commission discovered that it had lost 1,375 ballot papers.