Palmer pays his way, a bit, but we pay more

HE promised to “pay my own way a little bit’’ but Clive Palmer is receiving taxpayer-funded assistance.

Clive Palmer arriving in a Comcar at Parliament House in Canberra. Picture: Kym Smith

HE promised to “pay my own way a little bit’’ but Clive Palmer is receiving taxpayer-funded assistance, racking up almost $100,000 in expenses and entitlements since he was elected.

The self-proclaimed billionaire Queensland MP, who counts a 19-seat Bombardier jet among his private collection, has charged $2921.51 to the public purse for domestic flights.

And while he has a penchant for motoring to parliament in Canberra in vintage wheels, inclu­ding a 1972 Rolls-Royce Phantom VI, Mr Palmer has accessed a little more than $1000 worth of travel by the commonwealth chauffeur-driven car fleet, COMCAR.

The breakdown of all expenses paid to Mr Palmer and reimbursements under his relevant parliamentary entitlements from September 7 to May 18 have been released to The Weekend Australian under Freedom of Information laws.

More than 80 per cent of the Palmer United Party leader’s expenses have been on office facilities and fit-out costs. As the new member for the Sunshine Coast-based seat of Fairfax, Mr Palmer spent $4761 on office establishment and relocation costs, including setting up his electorate office in Maroochydore.

He spent $1571 on printing and communications and $4889.02 on telecommunications, but just $71.40 on publications over nine months. The well-read Attorney-General George Brandis, by comparison, spent more than $1000 on publications during the first six months of last year.

Mr Palmer is entitled to the taxpayer-funded expenses as a federal politician, and his $98,894.95 tally over nine months is less than that of his predecessor, former Fairfax MP Alex Somlyay.

Finance Department figures show Mr Somlyay had $114,164.13 worth of expenses over a six-month period from January last year, including more than $9000 on domestic flights, more than $1000 on publications and $2933.24 in cab charges.

Mr Palmer declared last month that it was “bad to always take a COMCAR at the taxpayers’ expense’’. “I thought I should at least pay my own way a little bit,” he said after alighting from his Rolls Royce at Parliament House, adding, “that money could be better spent giving it to pensioners’’.

But, showing that he never likes to be predictable, he returned to using the government fleet this week. He brushed off questions about his inconsistency, saying he’d never promised not to use COMCARS and he did it “so the other guys don’t feel bad’’.

Mr Palmer is due to meet Tony Abbott next Thursday for their first face-to-face talks on measures that range from budget savings to the repeal of the carbon tax.

Three PUP senators-elect — Tasmania’s Jacqui Lambie, West Australian Dio Wang and Glenn Lazarus from Queensland — will help make up the balance of power in the upper house when the Senate changes over on July 1.

If Labor and the Greens do not support government legislation, the three PUP members will be critical to the fate of the Prime Minister’s agenda.