‘Reform Australia’: Former Clive Palmer Party Echoes Nigel Farage

A fringe party Clive Palmer tried to deregister after it won zero seats has rebranded again – this time modelling itself on the success of Nigel Farage’s Reform UK movement.

Fringe political party that was almost deregistered after a Clive Palmer-led rebrand failed is again changing its name following a merger with Reform Australia.

The Australian Federation Party briefly joined forces with Trumpet of Patriots ahead of last year’s federal election, adopting the latter’s name and receiving tens of millions in campaign funds from Mr Palmer.

Mr Palmer tried deregistering the party after it failed to win a single seat, but the Australian Electoral Commission sided with opponents of the move.

The party changed its name back to Australian Federation Party earlier this year, but has again applied to change it to Reform Australia after merging with the UK copycat party.

“The Federation Party has formally merged with Reform Australia, creating a united movement focused on delivering practical solutions for everyday Australians,” federal director Walter Villatora told NewsWire on Thursday.

“We focus exclusively on kitchen table issues – the challenges that directly affect the daily lives of Australian families.”

Top issues included “the rising cost of living, housing affordability, an overly burdensome taxation system, growing hospital and ambulance wait times, declining educational standards, and the broader concern that Australia is moving away from being the ‘lucky country’ and towards one that creates unnecessary hardship for hardworking Australians”.