$230m on cars, $100m on politics – how Clive Palmer spends the huge mining royalties

Clive Palmer makes more money than just about every other billionaire. But how he chooses to spend it is unique — and controversial. Boats, cars, planes, property. And politics.

Billionaire Clive Palmer has a superyacht called 'Australia’, part of a collection of assets he buys with $620m in mining royalties every year. Picture: Jane Dempster / The Australian.

How does a billionaire who gets $620m income annually spend their money?

In Clive Palmer’s case, there’s all the trappings that wealth can bring – and then there’s the forking out of about $100m on politics, his other big hobby.

There are the two boats, at least four jets, big property holdings in Queensland, especially around Paradise Point on the Gold Coast, where his primary residence is, and the Coolum Resort and golf courses potentially earmarked for apartment projects.

There’s a resort in Tahiti and rural property in Queensland, not to mention various mining tenement holdings that could one day yield coal. There are also warehouses in New Zealand and other property overseas.

And then there are the cars.

“I’ve got the world’s biggest collection of vintage cars,” Palmer reveals to The Australian. “They’re in Brisbane. I think the collection is worth about $230m at the moment. For example, we’ve got more than 22 vintage Ferraris, 120 Mercedes, 100 Rolls Royces and Bentleys. We’ve got the world’s only full collection of Rolls Royce Phantoms. We’ve got Bugattis and all these others.

“They’ve been a good investment, and they’re probably up 30-40 per cent during the pandemic. I’d probably get $400m if I sold them but I won’t, because I’ve been collecting since I was younger.”

All that spending is possible because of the massive iron ore royalties that flow Palmer’s way every year, a cool $620m in cash courtesy of a canny yet controversial deal with Chinese mining giant Citic that has been the subject of much litigation.

There are plenty of legal battles he’s seemingly always locked in, worth up to $24bn if he manages to win the various actions he has against Citic and the WA government, according to his company Mineralogy’s financial accounts.

Palmer’s wealth reaches an estimated $18.4bn this year, enough for him to reach the top 10 of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 when the 2022 edition is published in The Australian on Friday.

At that level Palmer can just about buy whatever he wants.

Why, then, is he spending more than $100m on funding the United Australia Party’s federal election campaign this year, including tens of millions in political ads adorning billboards around the country, running during prime time television and seemingly before every YouTube video?

He can certainly afford it. “It’s only a couple of months’ work for me,” Palmer deadpans, comparing the $100m spend – which includes writing $27m worth of cheques for free-to-air television advertising – to that annual royalty income.

Palmer has at least had a long interest in politics, going back to the days when he worked for the late Queensland Premier Joh Bjelke Petersen in the 1980s before he went on to make money in Gold Coast property and then gain control of those WA mining tenements that are the basis of his wealth these days.

After becoming a billionaire, Palmer would win a seat in federal parliament with his then Palmer United Party in 2013, which would for a time hold the balance of power in the Senate until he fell out with Senators Jacqui Lambie and Glenn Lazarus.

He would leave politics three years later and deregister the party in 2017, but shelled out $88m in mostly negative advertising.

Palmer has said he will top that mere $88m outlay three years ago with an even bigger campaign that he promises will target the Prime Minister Scott Morrison, Anthony Albanese and even the Greens.

“I get up at 2am … and spent my first hour thinking about all the nasty things I can do to the Liberal Party or the Labor Party,” Mr Palmer told The Australian aboard his superyacht in Sydney Harbour last month.

“Then from 3 to 4am I actually do it, writing the ads and other things.

He admits that politics at least keeps him busy.

“When you get to 67, your options are limited, right? You can play croquet, you can go and do bowls. You can hop on a bus and go and look at flowers. Or you can be engaged in politics at a national level like this.”

The 2022 edition of The List – Australia’s Richest 250 is published on Friday in The Australian