Queensland election: Clive Palmer ad spend more than majors

Billionaire Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has outspent both major parties on advertising ahead of the October 31 Queensland election.

Clive Palmer in Townsville endorsing his Clive Palmer's United Australia Party candidates. Picture: Alix Sweeney

Billionaire Clive Palmer’s United Australia Party has outspent both major parties on advertising ahead of the October 31 Queensland election.

Figures compiled by data and analytics group Nielsen show that in the three months before the election campaign, Mr Palmer’s party spent $419,952 on ads on metropolitan free-to-air TV, press and radio in Queensland.

His spend dwarfed Labor’s ad spending, which came in at $237,049, and the LNP’s advertising outlay from June to September, which tallied $91,615.

It is not clear whether the UAP advertising spending includes that paid for by his flagship company, Mineralogy, which has run billboards and media advertisements across the state attacking the Labor government and promot­ing his minor party.

During last year’s federal elect­ion, Mr Palmer’s mammoth ­advertising spend also exceeded that of the major parties.

He and his private companies have been heavily donating to the UAP, with his party recording $2.13m in 30 donations since late June, including the largest single donation in Queensland political history: $2m from Mineralogy on September 16.

This year, Labor has taken 845 donations totalling $2.44m, with the biggest single donations this year coming from unions, including $50,000 from the Electrical Trades Union (which has donated more than $222,000 to Labor this year), $30,000 from the Rail Tram and Bus Union (which has donated $73,000 altogether) and $37,000 from United Voice. The United Workers Union, led by left faction boss Gary Bullock, has donated $142,073 to Labor this year.

But the Liberal National Party has raked in more than twice as many donations as Labor, taking $5.3m from 1640 donors this year. The biggest single contributors were waste management company JJ Richards and Sons ($51,000); and Coastwide Engineering, Great Latitude, John Hull and Geoffrey Thomas, which each donated $50,000.

The Electoral Commission of Queensland won’t say if it is investigatin­g whether or not Mr Palmer is a property developer under the Electoral Act, and therefore a prohibited donor.

The Australian revealed on Friday that Mr Palmer’s huge election spend was in question because he is trying to get two enormous property developments approved on the Gold Coast.

Mr Palmer denies he is a property developer, and says “my business is mining”.

“I own a large company with many assets across a range of sectors, including a large iron ore project in the Pilbara,’’ he said.

“Under the act, you need to have regularly undertaken development application proposals, which I have not.

“I haven’t lodged any new applicatio­ns before the act was introduced.”

On Friday, Queensland Labor state secretary Julie-Ann Campbell launched an extraordinary attack on Mr Palmer, accusing him of “lying” for falsely claiming the Palaszczuk government was planning a “20 per cent death tax”.

Ms Campbell has written to Facebook and Twitter asking the social media giants to “immed­iately” pull advertisements and posts from Mr Palmer making the claims.

Ms Campbell said Mr Palmer’s claims about the death tax were “barefaced, outrageous lies”.

“Today I have written to Facebook and Twitter to demand that they immediately remove any and all false claims made by Clive Palmer and his party regarding a death tax being considered by Labor,” she said.

“I wish to make clear that Mr Palmer’s claims are nothing more than barefaced, outrageous lies.”