Clive Palmer has lost his High Court bid to re-register the United Australia Party for this year's federal election.

The ruling means the party's candidates will not be identified with the UAP on ballot papers for the House of Representatives and the Senate.

The United Australia Party was voluntarily deregistered after the last federal election, and under the law could not re-register within the same electoral cycle.

The High Court has ruled the law is valid and ordered the plaintiffs to pay the costs of the case.

The Court has yet to publish its reasons, given the urgency of resolving the case before the next election is called.



In reply, the Commonwealth stressed that the restrictions of the law only take effect when a party chooses to deregister.

Its lawyers argued the benefits of party registration are not absolute, but come with some responsibilities, such as transparency obligations around disclosing donations.

While no representative from the UAP has explained why the party was deregistered voluntarily, the Commonwealth's lawyers said one "possible explanation" was that it sought to avoid those obligations.