Ron Boswell slams the ‘cult’ of Clive Palmer

RETIRING Queensland Nationals senator Ron Boswell has launched a parting shot at Clive Palmer, declaring his party a “cult’’ run on gimmicks.

RETIRING Queensland Nationals senator Ron Boswell has launched a parting shot at Clive Palmer, declaring his party a “cult’’ run on gimmicks that is targeting Pauline Hanson voters.

Senator Boswell, who retires from politics today, lashed the Palmer United Party as having “no substance, no policies’’.

“You can’t run a party like that,’’ Senator Boswell said. “If it’s based on one man it becomes a cult.’’

He said Mr Palmer had no right to promise pensioners an increase in their pension “when you know it can’t be done, when you know it can never be delivered”.

“It is a gimmick,’’ he said.

He said Mr Palmer turning up to parliament in a Rolls-Royce, likewise, was a gimmick.

“Now most people down here won’t do that because they have a very high regard for parliament,” Senator Boswell said.

“No one wants to undermine it. But what he is doing is turning the parliament into something to be laughed at, that it’s not something to be taken seriously.’’

Senator Boswell said Mr Palmer was doing it simply to raise his profile.

Senator Boswell, who in 2001 put his political career on the line to fight and beat Ms Hanson, said PUP was “going for the same sorts of people as Pauline Hanson’’.

“But he’s got more money than Pauline and he’s able to buy candidates and control them,’’ Senator Boswell said.

He said the sorts of people who were attracted to Ms Hanson were people who were “struggling to make a quid’’.

“They are working hard, they are in a business that is not working,” Senator Boswell said.

“Well they think the system is letting them down. And so they are saying I don’t believe the political system is serving me, so I’ll jump.’’

Senator Boswell’s criticism comes as Mr Palmer prepares to open his Coolum resort to Fairfax voters at the weekend for a “Fairfax Festival Weekend’’ which includes speeches by PUP figures and free entry to attractions such as the Palmersaurus.

Senator Boswell said he was disappointed in Mr Palmer, adding that he had helped him when he was establishing his mining business.

Senator Boswell questioned whether Mr Palmer would be able to hold his three senators together after they are sworn in next month.

He appealed to Glenn Lazarus, the Palmer candidate who won a Queensland Senate seat to be a “senator for Queensland, not a senator for Clive Palmer’’.

“Glenn Lazarus, he’s played for Australia, he’s got to have some ability apart from what’s in his football boots,’’ Senator Boswell said.

“The question is whether those people will wake up. And I think some will when they come down here and they mix with the people down here, they will see there are genuine people who are trying to do the best for their country.’’

Senator Boswell said The Australian was the only media outlet that had held Mr Palmer to account, with investigative reporter Hedley Thomas leading the way.

“A lot of outlets are using him to fill pages,” he said.

“That’s not what the media should be about. The media has a fiduciary duty to go into the policies.”