Refined votes made Clive Palmer a national living treasure

IT is one of Clive Palmer's most revered gongs, the tycoon's National Living Treasure award

IT is one of Clive Palmer's most revered gongs. The tycoon's National Living Treasure award takes pride of place in his Gold Coast mansion -- and Mr Palmer's adoration for the recognition of him as a great Australian has spilled into speeches and interviews as he seeks to be prime minister.

The story of how it came to be awarded early last year is less well known.

The Weekend Australian has been told by several sources from his Queensland Nickel refinery that the triumph belongs as much to the almost-1000 strong workforce there at the time -- because they were implored by the company to vote online for the boss. Many of the staff followed the instructions to the letter, while some loyalists excelled themselves in a bid to boost the vote.

"We were given very clear instructions to make sure all staff got told in no uncertain terms to vote for Clive Palmer as National Living Treasure," said one of the sources.

"A note was drafted and it went out to everyone in the business.

"I know a lot of people who said they tried to vote multiple times."

In previous years, the National Trust's quest to identify the men and women who would be awarded National Living Treasure did not include an online voting opportunity, but the procedures were relaxed last year through a tie-up between the National Trust and the magazine Woman's Day, resulting in controversy and an internal furore.

After learning Mr Palmer had achieved sufficient votes, National Council of Australian Trusts chairman Graeme Blackman said it was "not nationally endorsed at all" by the trust.

When asked whether the voting process was fair, Dr Blackman, who is no longer national chairman, said yesterday: "It's a matter for the NSW body (of the national trust) that ran this program."

National Trust (NSW) chief executive Brian Scarsbrick said yesterday: "We are reviewing the whole process of the National Living Treasures and we will obviously make some changes as a result of what we have learnt from going electronic last time.

"There's no doubt that what we'll have is a system of vetting. We certainly would not do it this way again."

Mr Palmer, who is fielding candidates from his Palmer United Party in all 150 lower house seats and the Senate, said yesterday: "I personally never asked any staff member to vote for me."

Mr Palmer added that Woman's Day ran a "secret ballot", similar to the voting process in elections, and he said the magazine's online system did not permit multiple votes from the same user.

Weeks before he joined six other Australians in receiving the gong last year, Mr Palmer said: "It would be a huge honour to be named one of the National Living Treasures, and it would also be a worthy recognition for Australia's resources sector, which contributes so much to our economy."

A year before being asked to vote for him, staff at the Queensland Nickel refinery were the beneficiaries of holidays and cars after it produced a bumper result, but the love has diminished amid slumping profits and staff cuts.

Woman's Day editor-in-chief Fiona Connolly said: "Most of the results and the votes were very much expected but there were some interesting ones, most notably Clive. I was surprised at the number of votes that Clive received. We did put in every measure to ensure that only one vote could be made by each voter."