Electoral Commission of Queensland ‘bowing to ALP pressure’
Clive Palmer has accused the Electoral Commission of Queensland of an ‘abuse of process’ in going to the Supreme Court to declare the billionaire a prohibited donor.
Clive Palmer has accused the Electoral Commission of Queensland of an “abuse of process” in going to the Supreme Court to declare the billionaire a prohibited donor in funding his political party’s campaign ahead of last year’s state election.
Lawyers for Mr Palmer have sought to have the legal action thrown out of court, accusing the ECQ of bowing to “political pressure” from the Australian Labor Party after he spent millions on federal and state campaigns.
Mr Palmer’s United Australia Party ran 55 candidates at the October 31 state election, with its multi-million-dollar campaign funded by him and his network of corporate entities, including Palmer Leisure.
The ECQ’s application followed an investigation by The Australian revealing Mr Palmer personally, and Palmer Leisure, submitted applications to the local council to build “major” property developments on the Gold Coast.
The company is fighting a council decision to reject its application to build the Robina Transit Development Plan, comprising 1200 homes on the 75ha site.
Under Queensland’s Electoral Act, it is illegal for property developers to make political donations and for parties to accept them, with people found to have knowingly circumvented the ban facing a maximum penalty of 10 years’ jail or a $195,825 fine.
A candidate or party in receipt of a donation from a banned donor can be liable to pay the state up to twice what it accepted.
Mr Palmer’s lawyer, Sameh Iskader, in an affidavit this week sought a permanent stay on the legal action, saying the businessman had provided evidence to the ECQ that he was not a property developer. He said ALP members had called on the ECQ to investigate donations to his party and “spending on electoral campaigns by entities associated with Clive Palmer … and it should be inferred the applicant (ECQ) has been subjected to political pressure to commence the originating application”.
Documents filed previously in the proceedings showed that UAP representatives had told the ECQ ahead of the October 31 state election that Mr Palmer could not be considered a property developer because the definition required a person to regularly submit development applications.
The UAP argued that the ECQ had cited only one application, made in 2015 by Palmer Leisure, in their action.
The ECQ has yet to respond to the latest affidavit, and a hearing will be held on February 1.
Despite denying he is a property developer, Mr Palmer and his company are actively appealing the Gold Coast council’s denial of two applications for large developments: the Robina proposal and a 76ha scheme at Merrimac, Greenheart Gardens Development Plan.
Since late June, Mr Palmer and five of his private companies have donated at least $2.13m to UAP.
Research conducted by the Centre for Public Integrity this week said companies owned by Mr Palmer funnelled $83m into UAP in 2019.
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