The Trumpet of Patriots leader has shut down her social media accounts after her party failed to pick up any seats despite bombarding voters with spam texts.
Suellen Wrightson received 3.72 per cent of the vote in the Hunter, near the NSW Central Coast, as of 11pm on Saturday.
Ms Wrightson’s result may not come as too big of a shock as she spent little time campaigning in the electorate.
The party leader thanked her fellow Hunter candidates on social media on Saturday evening before locking her Facebook and X accounts.
‘To my fellow Hunter candidates, thanks for a respectful & engaging debate about what we need in our community,’ she wrote on X.
‘One thing we can all agree on is Australia is the best country on earth & our collective future is worth fighting for.’
The Trumpet of Patriots, which was started by billionaire Clive Palmer, infuriated voters after sending unsolicited texts to mobile phones across the country.
The messages were signed off by Harry Fong, the party’s lead Senate candidate for Queensland, and urged people to ‘Vote1 (sic) Trumpet of Patriots’.
Suellen Wrightson received 3.72 per cent of the vote in the Hunter, near the NSW Central Coast, as of 11pm on Saturday
Social media was flooded with people complaining about the messages last weekend, with the correspondence ramping up at the start of the week.
Frustrated Aussies were able to get their own back on Mr Fong after finding the accredited lawyer’s mobile phone number online and sharing it on social media.
‘His name is Harry Fong and his info is below. He’s removed his contact info from his QLD Bar bio but I found a previous one with his mobile and email,’ one man posted.
‘I’ve never been so pleased to be a night owl as I am today. Have at him kids, text him and let him know how much you love his spam and feel free to share this post as wide as possible so everyone can reply to his texts!’
Mr Palmer was grilled by Channel Seven’s Mark Riley on Saturday night over his election spending and spam text strategy.
‘You’ve been the great disruptor in this campaign, there’s been absolutely no missing your spam messages on all of our mobile devices,’ Riley said.
‘What was your objective in this campaign? Last time we heard you spent 100-odd million dollars and got about 10 back. You’re doing your dough, what’s the point?’
Mr Palmer replied by saying: ‘Well I think we’ve got 130,000 Australians homeless at the moment, we’ve got 3.7million Australians having trouble with food.
The Trumpet of the Patriots, which was started by billionaire Clive Palmer, infuriated voters after sending unsolicited texts to mobile phones across the country
‘Those sort of issues are real issues to bring for the debate. And I think we put forward a lot of issues over advertising I think should be addressed by the political classes in general.
‘So having a debate, having different ideas, having disagreements is not a bad thing for a democracy.’
Former Labor leader Bill Shorten then weighed into the discussion and told Mr Palmer, ‘there’s no doubt Clive, you are a formidable communicator’.
‘But for conservatives you’re a wrecker, you split their vote… It’s a giant billionaire’s vanity project.
‘And you’re welcome to spend your money on whatever you want, it’s a free country.
‘I’m glad you’re so motivated about the homeless and everything else, I’d just be interested to see what you do on Monday to look after them.’
The Trumpet of Patriots picked up just 2.1 per cent of the primary vote and failed to pick up any seats as of 11pm on Saturday.
In NSW, the party picked up just 1.9 per cent of the primary vote while in Victoria they performed the weakest out of all the states with just 1.2 per cent of the vote.
The party performed the strongest in Queensland with 3.52 per cent of the vote.
Trumpet of Patriots’ candidates performed poorly across the board.
In the Sydney electorate of Reid, David Sarikaya received 1.5 per cent of the vote, failing to defeat Labor’s Sally Sitou.
During the campaign, Mr Sarikaya faced multiple reports that he had formerly been bankrupt.
