Clive Palmer says ‘there’s no better’ to help shape public policy

In a candid interview, Clive Palmer reveals his next ambitious plans and why he’d be ‘attacked’ for acting like other Aussie billionaires.

Mining Billionaire Clive Palmer had a big win in court this week

Clive Palmer might be the only person in Australia to argue that spending more than $100m on a federal election campaign only to win one Senate seat is not a waste of money.

And the billionaire is prepared to do it all again.

Palmer says “there’s no better thing for someone like me to do to help shape public policy debate” when asked whether the $113m he pumped into his United Australia Party ahead of the election last May was worth it.

“We had policy objectives and as an Australian I think you’ve got a duty to have a point of view. And you don’t just value your contribution to public opinion by the amount of seats you win in parliament.”

Palmer this week racked up another big court win against Chinese giant conglomerate CITIC over access to land next to the $US12bn ($18bn) Sino Iron mining project in Western Australia.

The win gives Palmer even more spending power for his business and private pursuits, though when asked if it means he will once again spend $100m or more on future election campaigns, Palmer indicates he would like to.

“Is it extraordinary that an Australian spends 10 per cent of their income on community issues? There’s not a better thing to do really to put the focus on a public policy debate – even if people don’t agree with it,” Palmer says.

“It keeps democracy alive. And most of the things we said during the last campaign have come true anyway.”

Clive Palmer spent more than $100m for the United Australia Party at the last federal election to win only one Senate seat. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nicki Connolly

CITIC had wanted to access additional land covered by Palmer’s tenements for no further payment – it already pays Palmer more than $600m annually in royalties for the right to operate the huge iron ore mine – but it was rebuked in the Supreme Court by Judge Ken Martin.

“It’s no problem if they want to expand and export more resources, but they don’t come for free,” Palmer explains. “There’s a danger because there’s publicity about me around this, that it might trivialise the issue. But there’s no value in Australia selling its resources for nothing. I’m all for looking at it from a national perspective.”

Judge Martin suggested it would not be unreasonable for Palmer to seek a payment of something in the order of $750m from CITIC in return for access to the additional land.

Judge Martin described the decade-long legal battle between Palmer and CITIC in Shakespearean terms

“As their litigation wars continue, a verse from Macbeth resonates: I’ll fight till from my bones my flesh be hacked”.

As with many discussions with Palmer, the lines between fact and fiction, truth and opinion can blur.

In reality, spending $113m on an election campaign is more than 10 per cent of his annual income. But then again it is, as he has said previously, “only a couple of months worth of work” for Palmer based on that royalty stream.

In an interview with The Weekend Australian this week, the topics the ebullient Queensland billionaire talks about range from Covid vaccinations and rising interest rates to plans for his Coolum resort, vintage cars, plastic dinosaurs, a replica Titanic and the treatment he receives in the media compared to Atlassian billionaire co-founders Mike Cannon-Brookes and Scott Farquhar.

Regarding the latter, Palmer is bemused by Atlassian’s move to sack 500 staff this week soon after Farquhar shelled out $130m for a Point Piper mansion in Sydney – “I’d get attacked if I’d done that, can you imagine” – and he also reveals his worry about the $5m in gold bullion is wife Anna has in the Perth Mint. “There’s been allegations there [of cover ups of sales of less than pure gold] and she wants to sell her gold. But will she get $5m or do we have to settle for the silver or copper price for some of it too?”

Palmer still keeps a keen eye on politics and keeps funding anti-Covid vaccination advertising and conferences.

Not surprisingly, he believes he has been proven correct on his scepticism about pandemic lockdowns. He also cites his constant warnings about the spectre of rising interest rates as proof that he could be taken more seriously.

“I won’t starve, but before our last election I said interest rates would go up and everyone said we were wrong. Well, here we are now. What’s going to happen to all these people who can’t pay their mortgage payments now? We highlighted the issue last year”.

Meanwhile, Palmer says he now has “too many properties” of his own, having splurged on dozens of mansions in and around Paradise Point on the Gold Coast and riverfront holdings in Brisbane.

Clive Palmer aboard his superyacht in the Brisbane River.

He is spending $130m on revamping his Coolum resort on the Sunshine Coast, where he once installed giant replica dinosaurs on the golf course (confusingly, he says they were really on an adventure park next door, though golf officials may disagree) and battled residents.

The refurbishment is said to include replicas of the Seven Wonders of the World and the Trevi Fountain, and Palmer says about 170 tradesmen are currently on site. The resort was closed in 2015 and Palmer has been in dispute with timeshare residents.

Palmer also owns other golf courses on the Gold Coast and at Port Douglas, and a vintage car collection worth $220m. He would like to display the cars to the public, Palmer says, but it is hard to find a suitable site. “We’d need 22 acres. I’ve got 22 Ferraris and more than 100 Rolls Royce. The beauty of cars is you don’t pay tax on them if their value goes up.”

Then there are his long held plans to build a replica of the Titanic for a mooted $500m. Palmer says he is “dusting off the plans and having another look at whether it is still viable to do it”, while also claiming the boat’s website attracts “15 million visitors annually”.

Shorter term, Palmer’s $100m superyacht Australia – which he moored next to the Sydney Harbour Bridge last year during a defamation trial against WA Premier Mark McGowan – is currently on the way to Europe.

Palmer’s son is getting married there in May and his daughter a month or so later, raising the prospect of the billionaire spending the northern summer on the Mediterranean.

That, Palmer claims, will come after he has finalised the $1.5bn sale of his Queensland Nickel refinery in Townsville to obscure Swiss group Zero Carbon Investek. The refinery was placed in administration in 2016, sparking years of legal battles after subsequently going into liquidation.

“The deal should be settled in the next 90 days,” Palmer says, before adding that all creditors were eventually paid – though it is unclear that is actually the case.

Then there are Palmer’s coal mines that have been rejected in recent months over climate change concerns, including the Central Queensland Coal Project halted by Environment Minister Tanya Plibersek in February and the ruling last December that refused approval for Palmer’s Galilee Basin project.

“I don’t know why they are all knocking me, we’ve been pretty successful,” says Palmer, while adding he may pursue legal action over the mines and many other subjects.