The Palmer United Party will announce its upper house candidates, including leader, on November 5, a day after the writs for the election are issued.

"We want to do the same for Victoria as what we are doing for Australia [in the Senate]," Mr Palmer said.

The PUP Leader said the party would have a strong focus on unemployment in Victoria – currently 6.7 per cent – particularly with an emphasis on jobless youth.

While wanting to keep most of the policy announcements for the launch next month, Mr Palmer said the party would demand a review of the state of the Latrobe Valley.

Mr Palmer said governments needed to start telling the truth about state finances and not be as worried about debt, saying Australia and Victoria had a comparatively low rate by developed world standards.

"We want the government to be honest with the people of Victoria about the real state of the books."

At the 2013 federal election, in which PUP won three Senate seats, the party fielded candidates in all 37 Victorian lower house seats.

At that election PUP won 3.6 per cent of primary votes in Victoria but failed to land a Senate spot.

Former Victorian PUP Senate candidates and sporting legends Barry Michael and Doug Hawkins are not running this November.

Mr Michael said he was too busy managing boxers. He also said he was frustrated by the Senate voting system which saw him win more votes than Motoring Enthusiast Party Ricky Muir, who won office with just 17,000 primary votes.

Other former federal lower house candidates in Victoria contacted by Fairfax Media would not comment about the lack of policy, or candidates, from the party less than six weeks from the November poll.

"It's Clive call," several said, while others said they were no longer members after becoming disenchanted with the party.

The PUP website makes scant reference to Victoria but is littered with press releases about candidates and policies for next year's Queensland state election.

Strategists from the major parties said it was hard to work out how well minor parties were polling in the upper house ahead of the election.

One said PUP would need a big television campaign to garner votes in a state that traditionally rejected populism.

Another said Melbourne's south-east and north-west suburbs would be the most fertile areas for Mr Palmer's party.

Monash University political expert Paul Strangio said Victoria did not have a strong history of voting for populist or anti-establishment parties. He also said the fact the Palmer party had success at the 2013 federal election could temper the vote in election.

"The bar is high for minor parties. It [getting elected] would have to be on the back of some pretty complex arrangements," he said.