Terry McCrann: WA Inc aims to steal $28bn from Palmer
Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer has sued the WA Government for a purported $28bn. In an outrageous abuse of power, its response is to legislate to prohibit him from winning, writes Terry McCrann.
Terry McCrann
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The WA state Labor government has embarked on the single most outrageous abuse of power in Australian history – passing a law that aims to, plain and simple, steal $28bn from a single person.
What makes it worse is that the state Liberal Opposition – purportedly the party of individual rights and freedoms – has utterly disgraced itself by supporting the legislation.
So where are the Prime Minister Scott Morrison and Treasurer Josh Frydenberg to condemn, and condemn loudly and repeatedly, this outrageous behaviour?
It is not only an abuse of the most basic civil right, but is the exact example of sovereign risk that politicians, commentators and business people have warned over the years would do serious and permanent damage to the economy and the nation and directly hurt all 25 million Australians.
Most of those warnings of sovereign risk have been bluster and blather. But here is a real and quite stunning assault by a state government on fundamental property rights – and the PM and Treasurer just don’t want to know.
Now the target of the WA government’s outrageous behaviour is not the most sympathetic of characters, especially to a Labor government – Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer.
But that in a very real sense makes it all the more threatening – if they can do it to Palmer they can do it to anyone; even though the state government argues that it is only doing it to Palmer because billions of dollars are at stake.
So, really, trust us, only billionaires are at risk. That is, until the WA state government – or some other state government – decided to do it to millionaires as well; and if so, after that, anyone?
Palmer has sued the WA Government for a purported $28bn – yes, with a ‘b’ not an ‘m’ – over an iron ore project of his that, somewhat ironically, the previous state Liberal government of Colin Barnett decided to prohibit.
The trouble is, the sudden rising tide of alarm inside the state government is, that Palmer is suddenly looking increasingly likely to win – at least as the frightened rabbits in the glare of the fiscal headlights otherwise known as politicians see it.
So the government’s response is to legislate to simply prohibit him from winning.
It is proposing probably the most disgraceful words ever seen in legislation, at either state or federal level.
Challenging or calling into question on any basis, “any conduct of the state” connected to the Palmer issue is just prohibited.
“The rules known as the rules of natural justice, including any duty to procedural fairness, do not apply.” Full stop.
And for ‘good’ measure, any attempt by members of the public to get documents under Freedom of Information is prohibited. Again, full stop.
Think of it in football terms: the eastern state’s team is two goals up at three-quarter time against the Eagles or the Dockers; and so any further goals in the last quarter by the visiting side are simply prohibited.
And if at the final whistle the visiting side is still in front, the required one or two goals will automatically be deducted from their score.
Two teams can play, only one side can win.
Do you think too many eastern states side would bother going to Perth after that? This is a case study in living action of the perils of the much-touted sovereign risk.
To its – tiny – credit, the government is being right upfront about what and why it was doing; simply, a Palmer win could cost it a lot of money; the $28bn figure would double the state debt in one stroke.
But it’s also being upfront about its monumental stupidity.
It is setting out to steal $28bn from Palmer; when and if it actually got the loot, it would discover it was more like a ‘few’ billion.
The government has announced it knows zero about real business risk and present day valuations of projects that take years and cost billions of dollars to develop and that will operate far into the future.
Let’s not forget the pathetic behaviour of the opposition, with WA Liberal leader Liza Harvey trying to cloak its support with weasel qualifying words like “transparency” and “accountability. Never mind trashing the state and the nation’s future.
The commonwealth government is specifically prohibited from doing something like this by the Constitution, but not state governments can. They should not.
Originally published as Terry McCrann: WA Inc aims to steal $28bn from Palmer