Ministers in Tony Abbott’s government call him “WTF” behind his back, according to Clive Palmer. “That means Worse Than [Malcolm] Fraser,” the maverick MP said in another bizarre TV appearance yesterday.

The self-declared “living national treasure” and political schizophrenic already runs a powerful bloc in the Senate. He could very well add to his tally in the Western Australian recall election on Saturday. As William Bowe reports for Crikey, watching from Perth, it’s likely he’s bought a remarkable slice of the vote in WA with another expensive advertising blitz:

“An advertising juggernaut has steamrolled voters over the last fortnight courtesy of Clive Palmer, who looks to be repeating his feat of last September in spending his way into contention over the final weeks of the campaign. Some of the most recent results from WA show Palmer United breaking into double figures, and while the samples involved are uniformly small, the numbers are impressively consistent in having the party at or near 10%.”

To which we can only ask the good people of Western Australia … WTF?