Palmer United Party defector Glenn Lazarus says Clive Palmer proposed folding his remaining two senators into the Liberal Party at a pre-lunch meeting on February 6 in exchange for ministerial positions for the pair, in a bizarre deal Mr Palmer is claimed to have hatched with senior Abbott government figures.
The extraordinary allegation, which, if proved, could amount to a claim of unlawfully seeking to influence an MP's vote, is evidence of the toxic relationship between the former PUP colleagues who parted ways a month later amid bitter acrimony over the sacking of Mr Lazarus's wife Tess.
The alleged proposal – which would constitute the most sensational attempt at parliamentary consolidation since Julia Gillard coaxed Peter Slipper from the Coalition in exchange for the Speakership – was rejected on the spot, Mr Lazarus said, and it was never discussed again.
After the offer was made at his Sovereign Islands mansion, Mr Palmer drove Glenn and Tess Lazarus to lunch at the Mermaid Beach SLSC in his Rolls Royce, Senator Lazarus said. On arrival, he learned it was promotion involving people who'd won a lunch with Mr Palmer: "They'd named a dish after him, and people were bouncing around happily while I sat there eating my 'Clive Parmigiana' and thinking, 'My God, I've just been told the party leader wants us to join the Coalition!'"
The now independent senator claims Mr Palmer urged him and fellow PUP senator Dio Wang (WA) to join the Liberal Party and vote with the Coalition in the Senate, giving the government another two guaranteed votes. Two extra senators would not deliver the government a working majority in the Senate, but would improve its chances of success on a bill-by-bill basis.
He told Fairfax Media that the proposed deal – in which it was even suggested he would be elevated to the outer ministry in the sports portfolio – was one of the main reasons he resigned from Mr Palmer's party on March 12.
"I was bewildered and shocked by the whole idea," said the rugby league legend, 49. "But Clive said it would be a great thing. He said he wouldn't be around in politics a lot longer, and he wanted to look after Dio and I."
Mr Palmer has denied Senator Lazarus's claims, adding "with comments like these he clearly took the ball up one too many times for NSW". Mr Palmer said his party's future is "very bright", and that he will contest the next federal election.
Government figures scoffed at the claimed deal, describing it as fanciful.
The reclusive Senator Wang did not return calls on Friday.
According to Senator Lazarus, Mr Palmer (founder of the party and a Queensland-based member of the House of Representatives) revealed the extraordinary proposal during a private meeting at his Gold Coast home on the morning of Friday, February 6 – just three days before Prime Minister Tony Abbott survived a leadership spill motion. The meeting was attended by Senators Wang and Lazarus, and Lazarus's wife Tess, then the party's parliamentary secretary in the Senate.
Senator Lazarus said they weren't told what Mr Palmer would get from the proposed deal, or what it would mean for the future of his party. "But I told Clive I wasn't happy about the idea," he adds. "I said the government would chew us up and spit us out. He said it was just something they'd talked about. But he'd obviously spent a lot of time working it out, and he was very precise about how he'd arranged for me to become the sports minister."
However, the rookie senator admitted he "can't remember" the names of the government ministers purportedly behind the deal.
Mr Palmer is known to have dined socially with a number of senior ministers in recent months as the government has courted his party's votes for contentious legislation such as university reform.
However Fairfax Media could find no evidence that any of these ministers ever canvassed such an offer or discussed the possibility of PUP defections.
Senator Lazarus was left with the impression that "there was no commitment to keep Palmer United going long term", and this – along with Mr Palmer's lack of consultation with PUP senators and staff, and other "incidents" – led to his decision to resign. He said Mr Palmer didn't mention the proposed deal to him again. But when he asked Western Australia's Senator Wang if he'd be prepared to join the Coalition, Senator Wang had replied, "I'll follow whatever Clive says."
Senator Lazarus gave no indication of the suggested deal when first interviewed for Good Weekend the week after he resigned. "But I've had a good think about it since then," he said, "and a lot of people have been asking about the real reasons I resigned. So I wanted to give an insight into what was actually going on."
