The Advertiser Editorial April 13: Clive Palmer’s inglorious era must end now

THE list of those duped by businessman and politician Clive Palmer grows longer every day.

The Clive Palmer experiment, if you call it that, will almost certainly end at this year’s election, whether it be on July 2 or later. Picture: LYNDON MECHIELSEN/THE AUSTRALIAN

THE list of those duped by businessman and politician Clive Palmer grows longer every day.

There are the voters of the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax, who placed their trust in him at the 2013 federal election when he spearheaded the eponymous Palmer United Party.

Then there are the former PUP parliamentarians, who fell for his cash and hype-fuelled campaign but later, like former rugby league international Glenn Lazarus, split from the party to become independent.

Then, most importantly, there are the workers at Townsville’s Queensland Nickel refinery, which administrators say was used as a “piggy bank” for Mr Palmer’s business empire.

Administrators FTI Consulting say Queensland Nickel should be liquidated to repay some of the $100 million it owes, including to 787 workers still waiting for more than $70 million in entitlements.

The administrators said one of the main problems dogging Queensland Nickel was the fact it had forgiven more than $189 million loaned to other Palmer-owned companies since 2012.

Mr Palmer arrived on the national political scene with bombast. His campaign money swept aside warnings for people to be wary. But it seems he has turned out to be a hollow man, who has treated so many with disdain, contempt and indifference.

The Clive Palmer experiment, if you call it that, will almost certainly end at this year’s election, whether it be on July 2 or later.

There are echoes of the US Republican primaries, in which billionaire businessman Donald Trump is trying to slip away from scrutiny by deploying his large doses of braggadocio and cash.

Hopefully, yesterday’s revelations are the beginning of the end of an inglorious chapter in history which has stained Australian politics and business.

Most tragically, hundreds of Townsville workers have been left in the lurch with little, if any, hope of getting the full amount of their legal cash entitlements.

Giant hope in Rio

ADELAIDE schoolboy Kyle Chalmers has a long road ahead but he well and truly has the swimming world at his size 13 feet.

The Immanuel College student on Monday night booked a trip to the Rio Olympics, when he finished second in the 100m freestyle at the Australian Swimming Championships.

The 17-year-old — the son of former Adelaide and Port Adelaide AFL player Brett Chalmers — smashed his personal best time at the official trials in Adelaide.

Not only did Kyle show no sign of nerves before the biggest race of his life, he had the level-headedness immediately afterwards to thank the partisan home crowd and his state for their support. At 194cm tall, the powerfully built Chalmers’ maturity belies his years, mentally and physically.

Chalmers, who will be 18 when he competes in Rio in August, is following in the giant footsteps of Ian Thorpe, who was 17 when he made his Olympic debut in Sydney in 2000.

On behalf of all of those in his home state, for which he has shown great respect, we wish Chalmers all the best when he takes on the world’s finest.