Clive Palmer breaks promise to move his family to Townsville

Clive Palmer reneges on a promise to move his family by next month to Townsville, the focus of his political comeback bid.

United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer. Picture: AAP

Clive Palmer has reneged on a promise to move his family by next month to the north Queensland city of Townsville, the focus of his political comeback bid.

In professing his commitment to a community that was battered by the collapse of his Queensland Nickel refinery, but which he wants to represent in parliament, the rich-listed businessman had said he would move with wife Anna and their three children in time for the start of school.

Mr Palmer now says the timing of the federal election in May and travel for his United Australia Party have forced him to shelve the plan.

“I’m the federal leader of the party so I can’t stay in Townsville and not visit other states and meet other party members,” he told The Australian.

“But I’m on the (electoral) roll in Townsville, I’ve got the biggest investment of anyone in Townsville — we’ve got 60 people working and the refinery and we’re getting ready to reopen it.”

Mr Palmer has said he would run as the UAP candidate for the ultra-marginal ALP-held seat of Herbert in Townsville even though the closure of QNI two years ago made him public enemy No 1 in the eyes of many locals.

More than 800 jobs were lost and most of the QNI workforce was then short-changed of ­entitlements, although Mr Palmer insists this was the fault of liquidators and not his companies, which are embroiled in legal proceedings over a claimed $300 million in unpaid debts.

In addition to the big national advertising spending on show during the Australian Open tennis for the UAP — successor to the Palmer United Party that in 2013 propelled him into federal parliament for a term — he has spent up on media spots in Townsville to make his case that he is not to blame for the refinery going under.

Mr Palmer insistedlast August that he would make Townsville his home base and move his family from residences in Brisbane and the Gold Coast to an apartment he had renovated on the city’s seafront.

In 2016, Labor’s Cathy O’Toole snatched Herbert from the Liberal National Party, making it the country’s most marginal seat, but the strength there of One Nation and Katter’s Australian Party will shape one of the most volatile contests of the election.