Clive Palmer is set to retire from politics after his Trumpet of Patriots political party failed to secure any seats this election – despite him spending more than $60million to promote it.
The Trumpet of Patriots only secured 1.85 per cent of the primary vote, according to data from the Australian Electoral Commission.
On the back of his election blow, Mr Palmer has revealed he will retire from politics and instead focus on charity work.
‘I’m 71 and I’m getting too old for politics,’ he told The Daily Telegraph.
‘I’d rather spend time helping the tens of thousands that are homeless and hungry in this country … that’s why I’ve donated $5m to Foodbank,’ he said.
The Trumpet of Patriots 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’.
Social media was flooded with people complaining about the messages, with the correspondence ramping up at the start of the week.
Clive Palmer is set to retire from politics after his Trumpet of Patriots political party failed to secure any seats this election – despite him spending more than $60million to promote it
Suellen Wrightson received 3.72 per cent of the vote in the Hunter, near the NSW Central Coast, as of 11pm on Saturday
Frustrated Australians got their revenge on Mr Fong by finding his mobile number online and spreading 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: ‘Well I think we’ve got 130,000 Australians homeless at the moment, we’ve got 3.7million Australians having trouble with food.
‘So having a debate, having different ideas, having disagreements is not a bad thing for a democracy.’
The Trumpet of the Patriots, which was started by billionaire Clive Palmer, infuriated voters after sending unsolicited texts to mobile phones across the country
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.
