What does spending tens of millions of dollars on advertising and bombarding people with unsolicited text messages get you? Nothing, if you’re Clive Palmer – at least in the House of Representatives.
Trumpet of Patriots, Palmer’s most recent political party, will not win a single lower house seat and, as of midday on Saturday, had only 1.85% of the national vote. Legalise Cannabis Australia, which spent just $6,200 on social media ads in the last 30 days and barely campaigned, has so far won 1.14% of the vote.
It is not known exactly how much money Palmer’s party has spent on this election campaign. He told the Daily Telegraph he had spent up to $60m, but this figure has not been independently verified. Public records show the party spent more than $5m on YouTube ads and $1.2m on Meta ads.
It is too early to say whether the minor party will win enough votes and preferences to secure a Senate seat. Its best chance is in Queensland, but it currently has just less than a third of the required quota. This outcome may not be known for several days.
On Channel Seven on Saturday night, Palmer said the advertising spend had “stimulated debate” and claimed credit for an end-of-campaign discussion about welcome to country ceremonies, which his party had strongly criticised.
“I think we can win some Senate seats and play a really important role in the next term of parliament,” Palmer told Channel Seven.
Ads claiming “we don’t need to be welcomed to our own country,” were splashed on the front pages of Nine newspapers during the election campaign. Hours after welcome to country addresses were disrupted at Anzac day dawn services, similar ads surrounded the homepage of news.com.au.
The Trumpet of Patriots’ leader, Suellen Wrightson, who appeared on lengthy television ads during prime-time slots, did not come close to influencing the vote in the New South Wales coal mining seat of Hunter, securing just 2,855 votes or roughly 3.3% of the vote so far. Legalise Cannabis Australia secured 4.98% of the vote.
On Saturday night, Wrightson thanked candidates in Hunter for a “respectful and engaging debate about what we need in our community”.
“One thing we can all agree on is Australia is the best country on Earth and our collective future is worth fighting for,” said Wrightson, whose Facebook profile has now been locked.
Preferences from Trumpet of Patriots did cause some chaos in the final weeks of the campaign. One Nation changed its how-to-vote cards to move the Nationals and Liberals higher at the last minute in response to the Trumpets placing Coalition MPs last.
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When Trumpet of Patriots was launched in April, Wrightson said “Australia needs many of the policies of the Trump administration, which will be effective in bringing Australia back on track”. Yellow hats saying “Make Australia Great Again” were handed out. The American journalist Tucker Carlson featured in proceedings.
In his victory speech on Saturday night, Anthony Albanese criticised attempts to mimic foreign political campaigns in Australia, without specifically mentioning the United States or Trumpet of Patriots.
“Australians have chosen to face global challenges the Australian way, looking after each other while building for the future,” Albanese said.
While texts from Trumpet infuriated many Australians, the practice was not new or illegal. Australian political parties are exempt from privacy laws and anti-spam rules. This is also a bipartisan practice, although not with the same frequency.
On the final day of the 2022 election, the Liberal party used unsolicited text messages about asylum seeker boat arrivals and during the 2016 campaign, Labor sent messages about Medicare. The Independent MP Monique Ryan also sent them during this campaign.
