Clive Palmer won't be quitting politics despite a new poll showing voter support in his Sunshine Coast electorate is virtually non-existent.
A new Galaxy poll shows his primary support is sitting at just two per cent - down from 26.5 per cent when he narrowly won the seat on preferences at the 2013 election.
"There's no reason why I wouldn't run. There are a lot of people in the electorate that have given me a lot of support," he told ABC radio on Monday.
Mr Palmer said elections weren't all about winning.
"You don't just run because you think you have to be guaranteed to win. Democracy is about choice."
The poll of 506 Fairfax voters, published in The Courier-Mail, shows 83 per cent are dissatisfied with his performance. Just seven per cent believe he's doing a satisfactory job.
The poll was conducted six days after Mr Palmer's company Queensland Nickel sacked 237 workers at its Yabulu refinery near Townsville.
Mr Palmer has since had to defend more than $20 million in donations the company made to bankroll his Palmer United Party, and Queensland Nickel is now in administration as workers fight for their entitlements.
Federal government frontbencher Karen Andrews says Mr Palmer should quit parliament and focus his attention on affected workers.
"I think he should resign and he should resign before parliament resumes next week," she told Sky News on Monday.
Labor's employment spokesman Brendan O'Connor said the Turnbull government must act to create new jobs in the region and ensure axed workers get their entitlements if Queensland Nickel winds up bankrupt or in liquidation.
He said the coalition had tried to repeal Labor's entitlement guarantee scheme to ensure such workers get their money when companies fold and can't pay.
"We stopped it in the Senate," he told reporters after meeting with axed nickel workers in Townsville on Monday.
"If workers were like a drowning man, you wouldn't want the Liberal Party to be the lifesaver because they are the last ones to move."
He called on the prime minister to bring forward upgrades to the Bruce Highway to create new jobs and match Labor's promise to build a new stadium in Townsville.
He declined to say if he believed Mr Palmer should quit parliament.
Mr O'Connor said it was up to the corporate regulator to form a view about the way Queensland Nickel had been run.
"If a person has broken the law, for example, then they should be met with the full force of the law. It's entirely up to regulators and courts of law to determine the wrongdoing of others."
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