Clive Palmer’s back to fight for every seat with United Australia Party

Clive Palmer has vowed to stand candidates in every federal seat, while boasting of his personal wealth.

Clive Palmer after announcing his United Australia Party with new recruit Brian Burston. Picture: AAP

Clive Palmer has vowed to stand candidates in every federal seat, while boasting of his personal wealth and declaring he owes nothing to workers who lost their jobs at his north Queensland ­nickel refinery.

Less than a month after the Queensland Supreme Court froze $200 million of his personal assets, the businessman and former federal MP returned to Canberra to confirm former One Nation ­senator Brian Burston was now ­“leader” of his new political entity — the United Australia Party.

Vowing to “reunite the country”, the former Fairfax MP — who suggested he could make a political comeback — promised a new policy blueprint early next year, and called for “more assistance and capital” to be released into the economy by the government.

But Mr Palmer refused to take any responsibility for the collapse of Queensland Nickel, or payments to its workers. Liquidators are now trying to claw back hundreds of millions of dollars owed to Queensland Nickel creditors, including the federal government, which is owed almost $70m under the fair entitlements guarantee safety net scheme to cover workers’ entitlements.

“I do not owe anyone anything in north Queensland. They may think differently, but it’s not true,” Mr Palmer said. “It’s not my ­responsibility to pay other people’s bills. I didn’t sack anybody.”

 

But he defended his right to plough money into his political party if he wanted to.

“You people seem to think if I have got money that I own I can’t spend it as I want to. That’s a freedom in this country,” he said.

He added that he remained “a rich guy”, and referred several times to the Australian Financial Review’s recent Rich List, which estimated his total wealth at $2.84 billion. Mr Palmer denied any of his assets had been frozen, despite a May 25 ruling by judge John Bond that $200m of his personal assets and $340m in assets held by his companies had been.

Instead, he accused journalists of writing “fiction” about him.

Senator Burston, who just 30 minutes earlier told the Senate he would stand as an independent, declared he was “very comfortable” representing Mr Palmer as a member of UAP.

“We will unite Australia, we will bring integrity back into the Senate,” Senator Burston said.

The former One Nation senator’s decision to attach himself to the Queensland businessman came less than a week after he formally resigned from One Nation, amid a falling out with founder Pauline Hanson over the party’s position on company tax cuts.

Mr Palmer’s recruitment of Senator Burston will enable him to avoid the requirement to have 500 members to register his new party.

But UAP will be unable to stand candidates in upcoming Super Saturday by-elections because the writs have already been issued.

 

UAP’s predecessor, the Palmer United Party, collapsed when his remaining senator, Dio Wang, failed to retain his seat in the 2016 double-dissolution by-election.

Mr Palmer launched PUP in 2013 after he won the lower house seat of Fairfax on preferences, and his Senate candidates, Jacqui Lambie, Glenn Lazarus and Mr Wang, secured seats.

Ms Lambie and Mr Lazarus quit the party before the 2016 election, branding Mr Palmer a bully.

Mr Palmer said the experience showed “you shouldn’t have one-person parties”. He said UAP would be different because it would have its own policies.

Queensland Nickel collapsed under its debts in 2016, leaving nearly 800 workers jobless, after the businessman allegedly used it as a “cash cow” to prop up the rest of his empire, his political party and his personal wealth.

During Mr Palmer’s press conference yesterday, the billionaire also came under fire from Labor MP Cathy O’Toole, the member for the Townsville-based seat of Herbert.

“Why aren’t you paying the workers in the Herbert district, in Townsville, the money that they’re owed,” she said.

“I’ve got John from Burdell who’s owed $10,000 by you. I’ve got Laura, $7000; Chris, $15,000; and Chris from Bushland Beach, $10,000. These people are doing it tough, Clive.”