The Palmer United Party (PUP) has announced it is suing the party’s former senators, Glenn Lazarus and Jacqui Lambie, to recoup the money it spent on their election campaigns.
PUP national director Peter Burke issued a statement today saying the two senators promised to represent the PUP for the entirety of their terms when they sought endorsement at the 2013 election.
“Relying on those promises, the party spent millions of dollars and thousands of party supporters worked hard to get Mr Lazarus and Ms Lambie elected,” Mr Burke said in his statement.
“They have now broken their promises and the party will seek to recover in the courts — under the principle of promissory estoppel — those party funds.”
The party said it spent $7 million on Senator Lazarus’ Queensland election campaign and more than $2 million getting Senator Lambie elected in Tasmania.
Legal action has ‘good chance': Palmer
The PUP’s leader, Clive Palmer, told the ABC he believed the legal action had a “pretty good” chance of success.
“It was a typical promise, a reliance on that promise and then they broke their promise,” he said.
“The law is, if that happens, it’s called ‘promissory estoppel’, you don’t get any damages and you don’t get any interest but you’re entitled to your money back.”
When asked if the pair had signed a contract giving this guarantee, Mr Palmer said “there were documents signed” and the two senators had publicly promised to serve out their terms with the PUP through the media.
The Democratic Labour Party has launched a High Court bid to oust Victorian senator John Madigan from his seat after he quit that party in September.
Mr Palmer recently flagged joining that case but today he said his party was not “actively considering it” at the moment.
“That was one of the options,” he said.
“We’re not suing [Senator Lazarus and Senator Lambie] in relation to whether they can hold their Senate seat or how they should vote, that’s a matter for them.
“We’re suing them just to recover the funds that we spent in reliance of their promise before they got elected.”
The ABC has contacted both Senator Lazarus and Senator Lambie for comment.
Lambie forms JLN to give ‘ordinary Australians’ chance to run
On Tuesday, notices of Senator Lambie’s application to register her party appeared in Tasmanian newspapers.
The advertisement listed the “proposed registered officer” as Jacquiline Lambie and the abbreviated party name as JLN.
Announcing the new party, Senator Lambie said JLN would start by focusing on recruiting candidates to run for Senate spots, but would field candidates for both federal and state elections.
She said she wanted to establish her own political party to give “ordinary Australians” a chance to enter politics.
“First and foremost I want these people to be able to put their state first,” she said.
“I don’t want people dictating to them on how they should vote … and I want them to be able to make sure that their state always comes first and their country right next to that.
“That’s why it’s called a network, it’s not called a group or a party. I want people to keep their individuality. I want them to do the best possible job that they can.
“Running around as an independent costs a lot of money. It doesn’t matter how hard you try, when it comes to taking on the major parties, money-wise, you can’t compete with them.”
