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Keto comeback: Palmer promises another yellow avalanche

Clive Palmer says his United Australia Party will run candidates in every seat across the nation. (Lukas Coch/AAP PHOTOS)

Australians can expect an influx of yellow junk mail as billionaire mining magnate Clive Palmer plans another tilt for parliament, saying dieting has reinvigorated his political appetite. 

Mr Palmer will run for the Queensland seat of Fadden at the 2028 federal election, pledging his United Australia Party will have candidates in every electorate across the nation. 

He vows to run the largest campaign in Australian history, saying there will be banners and posters and every household will receive a mailout of his election manifesto titled the New Deal. 

Asked whether his campaign would include the yellow billboards and text messages used previously, Mr Palmer said it would include "everything you can think of".

United Australia Party chairman and businessman Clive Palmer
Clive Palmer says a new keto diet has reinvigorated him to run for politics again. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

"You'll get to enjoy that," he told reporters in Canberra on Wednesday.

"We'll keep the government to account on certain issues. What we want is a better future for Australians."

Mr Palmer, the founder of mining company Mineralogy, has poured up to $100 million into previous campaigns, but failed to land any seats in the 2025 election. 

His party has one senator, populist Ralph Babet, who was elected in 2022.

After the May election, Mr Palmer flagged his political end by saying he was “too old for politics”, but the 71-year-old said a new keto diet had reinvigorated him to run again.

In February, the Australian Electoral Commission released its financial disclosure information for 2024/25, revealing Mineralogy funnelled $52.9 million into his Trumpet of Patriots party - which was his vehicle at the previous election. 

Clive Palmer and Ralph Babet
Senator Ralph Babet is the sole United Australia Party member in federal parliament. (Mick Tsikas/AAP PHOTOS)

Mr Palmer said he was not bothered by failing to win a seat last May and hoped his tilt would stimulate policy debate.

"I don't need anyone to vote for me to make me feel confident or self-assured," he said. 

"But we have to realise that we are in a crisis situation.

"It's not just enough to say, 'what's wrong with our country?' We have to say, 'what's the solution? How do we make it better?'" 

His election promises so far include a proposal to double the health budget and increase pensions by 30 per cent, but he did not clarify how that would be paid for. 

Advertisements in national newspapers indicated the UAP would seek to abolish the net zero transition, which he claimed would save more than one trillion dollars.

Mr Palmer was an MP from 2013 to 2016 for the Queensland seat of Fairfax.

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