Aunty’s Snowcone Tone must be a great journalist; after all, Clive Palmer says he is

ALTHOUGH sometimes the link between the world according to Mr P. and reality seems a bit hazy.

ALTHOUGH sometimes the link between the world according to Mr P. and reality seems a bit hazy.

Andrew Burrell, The Australian, February 14:

CHINESE giant Citic Pacific has ­accused Clive Palmer’s company of taking millions of dollars ...

Hedley Thomas, The Weekend Australian, Saturday:

IN the latest round of bitter litigation between Palmer and Citic Pacific … the Chinese want to know if their money underwrote much of the Palmer United Party’s election campaign ...

The Australian editorial, Tuesday:

IN less than two months, Clive ­Palmer’s Palmer United Party will assume a powerbroking role in the Senate ... but serious questions about his business operations uncovered by this newspaper are curiously ignored ... Are ABC and Fairfax audiences not entitled to know these facts?

Finally. But just an argument? ABC1’s Lateline, Wednesday:

TONY Jones: Now Clive Palmer, one final question; it’s a personal one, actually, because you would have seen in The Australian arguments made by your partners in Western Australia, Citic Pacific, that you’ve somehow taken a large sum of money from a fund set aside to manage the port facilities in WA and possibly used that to fund your election campaigning.

Or a Federal Court battle? Thomas, The Weekend Australian, Saturday:

THE accusations ... raised in the ­Federal Court by affidavits, financial documents and by leading commercial silk Andrew Bell SC for Citic ­Pacific, are that Mineralogy has helped itself to a large pot of cash for purposes expressly not permitted ….

Great investigative journalism? ABC1’s Lateline, Wednesday:

JONES: I don’t think I’ve heard your response to those allegations yet. What is it?

Clive Palmer: Well, it’s certainly scandalous and I can’t say — but there’s always been a resolution of that matter and it’s been pointed out to people and they’ve made the ­appropriate apology to us.

Jones: Is Citic pressing to investigate what happened to that money?

Palmer: Not that I’m aware of ... I think it’s just another make-up by the Rupert Murdoch press, really. It doesn’t seem to have any substance. These things happen about me regularly ’cause people don’t like me ...

Jones: Well your Citic partners seem to be quite angry ... Are you saying Citic has apologised about this?

Palmer: There’s been an apology given and I can’t divulge who it is under the terms of it.

Jones: We’ll have to leave you ...

Palmer: It’s good to talk to you, Tony. You’re a great journalist.

Jones: Let’s not go down that path.

Tweaking reality? Clive Palmer, Monday:

EVEN Rupert Murdoch, God bless him, when he went to the IPA last year and gave his speech, he said how extraordinary it was that Australia had such a low level of debt. And suddenly we get the Liberal Party in government now ‘Ooh, gee, that’s a big problem now, isn’t it?’

Rupert said what? Palmer, Wednesday:

RUPERT Murdoch was right when he went to the IPA dinner in Sydney last year and he said, “One of the disturbing things I can’t understand about Australia is that it’s got one of the lowest debt levels in the world!”

Rupert Murdoch, Institute of Public Affairs, April 4, 2013:

WHAT’S just about a generation of people who rack up government debt for their own healthcare and retirement — while leaving their children and grandchildren to foot the bill? A criticism that is more true of nations other than Australia.