Clive’s company, relatives, staff bolster poll war chest

Clive Palmer’s company has paid the fees for his United Australia Party candidates to stand in the Queensland election, with one third of those running either employees or relatives.

Clive Palmer in Townsville. Picture: Alix Sweeney

Clive Palmer’s flagship private company Mineralogy has paid the fees for his United Australia Party candidates to stand in the Queensland election, with one third of those running either employees or relatives.

Mr Palmer, who is facing fraud charges over his political spending at the 2013 federal election, has registered Mineralogy with the Electoral Commission of Queensland as a third party organisation, which means he is able to spend an extra $1m under the state’s strict expenditure cap.

An investigation by The Australian has discovered Mineralogy’s Visa credit card was used late last week to pay the ECQ $13,750 for the registration of 55 candidates to stand for the UAP at the October 31 state election.

Analysis of ECQ records shows at least 17 of the 55 candidates are either relatives of Mr Palmer, employees or former employees. For each candidate who stands for the UAP, the party can spend an extra $150,000 on campaigning, meaning Mr Palmer’s family and staff’s willingness to stand has added an extra $2.55m to his campaign war chest.

Labor has already asked the ECQ to reconsider its classification of Mineralogy as a third party, alleging it should be an associated entity with its expenditure included in the UAP’s overall spending cap. Labor alleges using Mineralogy as a third party is an attempt by billionaire mining magnate Mr Palmer and the party to circumvent the spending cap.

The Australian is not suggesting the allegation is true, only that it has been made. Mineralogy, of which Mr Palmer is sole director and secretary, has been running a targeted campaign boosting the UAP and attacking Annastacia Palaszczuk’s Labor government.

Mr Palmer is the controlling force behind both Mineralogy and the UAP.

Under Queensland’s Electoral Act, knowingly exceeding the cap can result in a $200,000 fine or 10 years in jail.

With 55 candidates, the UAP will be entitled to spend $8.25m on top of the $1m Mineralogy can spend as a third party. At least one of the candidates has told The Australian they will not actively campaign and are standing at the election only as a favour to Mr Palmer so he can spend more overall.

Mr Palmer’s wife Anna, her mother, father and brother, Mr Palmer’s nephew, his solicitor, his pilot, his media adviser, his former bodyguard, and several of his current and former employees at his golf clubs, soccer team, Queensland Nickel and coalmining businesses are all candidates.

Mineralogy is paying for its staff to work on the UAP campaign, and is also paying for dozens of bright yellow billboards across Queensland telling voters, “Clive says … give Labor the BOOT”. The company is also footing the bill for anti-Labor print, radio and television advertisements. Five of Mr Palmer’s businesses — including one that was deregistered in 2016 — have donated more than $2.13m to the UAP since June, including a $2m donation from Mineralogy — the largest single donation in Queensland political history.

Asked whether it was appropriate for Mineralogy, as a third party, to pay for the UAP candidates’ ECQ registration, a UAP spokesman said Mineralogy “had made a donation to the party for those amounts”.

“Mineralogy has declared that donation,” the spokesman said.

An ECQ spokeswoman said nomination deposits were not considered electoral expenditure but — if paid for by someone else — needed to be disclosed as a gift received by the party, which the UAP did. “There are no regulations about who can or cannot pay for the nomination deposits,” she said. “The payment of the nomination deposits by Mineralogy (of itself) does not change their status from third party to associated entity. Status as an associated entity depends on (among other things) demonstrating that the party controls Mineralogy, in the interests of the party. Conduct on the part of Mineralogy which can be explained as being in the interests of Mineralogy would not lead to the conclusion that the party controls Mineralogy.”

Mr Palmer is facing criminal charges for fraud over two payments worth more than $12m made at the 2013 federal election campaign — when he was elected to the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax — to the alleged benefit of his Palmer United Party. He denies any wrongdoing.

Introducing the expenditure cap reforms, Labor’s Attorney-General, Yvette D’Ath, said the overhaul was designed to keep big money out of politics, after Mr Palmer spent more than $80m on advertising ahead of last year’s federal election. Federal Labor partly blamed his intervention for then-¬opposition leader Bill Shorten’s loss.

Mr Palmer, a former member of the LNP and the Nationals,. still has strong links to the LNP, with former president Bruce McIver sitting on at least one of his boards. SAS Group, owned by federal Nationals president Larry Anthony and former LNP state executive member Malcolm Cole, does communications work for Mr Palmer’s companies.

Another former LNP president Dave Hutchinson was until recently employed by Mr Palmer as a property development consultant.