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Federal election 2022: Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party accidentally publishes how-to-vote cards

Peter LawThe West Australian
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Clive Palmer at the National Press Club.
Camera IconClive Palmer at the National Press Club. Credit: Rohan Thomson/Getty Images

Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party is set to encourage its supporters to preference the Liberals ahead of Labor in the vast majority of marginal seats at the Federal election.

How-to-vote cards were this week accidentally published on the UAP website, revealing how the Queensland billionaire’s party wants voters to send their preferences on polling day.

The cards show the UAP has placed the Liberals ahead of Labor in 30 of the 34 seats in the House of Representatives that have a margin of five per cent or below.

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In some Liberal-held marginal seats — such as Longman in Queensland, Reid in NSW and Chisholm in Victoria — the UAP ranked the Liberal candidate as high as third.

In WA, the UAP has the incumbent MP last in every seat, meaning Liberal Party candidates are bottom of the list in the marginal electorates of Pearce, Swan and Hasluck, but Labor are last in Cowan.

Last week, The West Australian revealed WA was the only State where the Liberal Party won’t instruct its supporters to preference the UAP in the Senate.

Liberal how-to-vote cards encourage voters in Victoria and Tasmania to place the UAP second on their ballot paper, third in NSW and Queensland and fourth in SA.

By contrast, in WA — where Mr Palmer remains unpopular because of his failed attempt to rip down the hard border — the Liberals are not preferencing the UAP at all.

Labor will still attempt to exploit coincidental visits by Scott Morrison and UAP leader Craig Kelly to Perth on Friday by launching new attack ads claiming there had been a preference swap deal.

In March, the Prime Minister said he did not want the Liberals to do a deal with the UAP. Asked again in April if there would be a deal, Mr Morrison replied: “No.”

Labor’s Perth MP Patrick Gorman said: “Scott Morrison told Western Australians he wouldn’t do a deal with Clive Palmer – and he lied.

“Western Australians remember that Scott Morrison backed Clive in the High Court against WA – and now he’s backing him again.”

A Liberal campaign spokesman said the party had placed the UAP last in every WA seat on its how-to-vote cards, unlike Labor which placed Pauline Hanson’s One Nation last.

“There is no preference deal with UAP. How they preference candidates on their how-to-vote cards is a matter for them,” the spokesman said.

The UAP did not respond to questions about preferences. The party’s how-to-vote cards can only be accessed on a website link that is not public facing.

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