‘Would the MP for Fairfax, Clive Palmer, please show up’

Clive Palmer has by far the worst attendance and voting record of any House of Representatives member.

Clive Palmer

Clive Palmer has by far the worst attendance and voting record of any House of Representatives member in his role as MP for the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax.

Polls indicate the mining magnate will struggle to keep his seat as a possible double-dissolution election looms for July.

Marcoola pensioner, 72-year-old Ralph Hallworth, echoed the views of many in the electorate, saying Mr Palmer has been a “huge disappointment” as MP.

“We hardly ever see Clive Palmer doing anything around the Sunshine Coast,” he said. “He promised so much but he’s hardly ever here. People expected big things of Clive but, all round, he’s been very disappointing.

“Just look at what he’s done to the Palmer Coolum Resort, sitting there vacant and empty. There’s no way he is going to get back in.”

Before the September 2013 election, Mr Palmer promised he would be a full-­time politician.

However, figures from the Chamber Research Office of the House of Representatives show that between the election and the end of last year, Mr Palmer ­attended sittings on just 99 days — the worst record of the lower house’s 150 MPs. The second-lowest was the much-travelled former trade minister Andrew Robb, who attended on 106 days.

And figures published by the parliamentary monitoring organisation OpenAustralia show Mr Palmer has voted in just 6.2 per cent of 399 lower house divisions, easily the lowest voting record of any MP. A NewsCorp Galaxy poll in January put Mr Palmer’s primary vote in Fairfax at 2 per cent, down from 26.5 per cent at the election.

Sources in the Liberal Nat­ional Party, which is expected to regain the seat, said Mr Palmer was more likely to poll between 5 and 10 per cent at the election.

Mr Palmer has been damaged by speculation he does not live in the electorate, as he claims, but in his Sovereign Island mansion on the Gold Coast.

Benny Pike, who worked in Mr Palmer’s electoral office as a community liaison officer, said it was no secret his former boss did not live at the Palmer Coolum Resort.

“He might have been there for two to four days a month at most,” Mr Pike said. “Quite often he would just drive up for the day and go home (to the Gold Coast) for the evening.”

Community leader Terry Welch said the Maroochydore Rotary Club had failed to have Mr Palmer attend an annual dinner. “People in the electorate expect their MPs to turn up to these things but you just don’t see Clive around the place,” he said.

However, Mr Palmer was backed by Sunshine Coast Agricultural Show president and local councillor Jenny McKay: “He has been good to us and he’s turned up when we’ve asked him to.”