Clive Palmer poured in $26m to make PUP grow

CLIVE Palmer’s move into polit­ics has been costly. He and his priv­ate companies poured almost $26m into his party in the latest financial year.

CLIVE Palmer’s move into polit­ics has been expensive, with the businessman and politician’s priv­ate companies pouring almost $26 million into his fledgling party in the latest financial year.

But political donation records, supplied to the Electoral Commission Queensland by the Palmer United Party and the federal MP’s web of companies, are missing $6m that was handed over to the party in the lead-up to last year’s federal election.

The $6m was drawn by Mr Palmer in August last year from the operating accounts of a West Australian port and funnelled to the PUP through one of his companies, Cosmo Developments.

But the funds, part of $12m that is now the subject of a preliminary police investigation and civil trial in Brisbane between Mr Palmer and his Chinese partners in a West Australian iron ore joint venture, are not recorded as a dona­tion in the declarations.

The electoral commission has confirmed that the PUP annual declaration was submitted last month without the legally required­ audit of its finances.

It has yet to file an “auditor’s certificate’’ of its declarations in line with all political parties. “We are still waiting for an auditor’s certificate from the PUP,’’ an ECQ spokesman said, adding that it was required for the returns to be deemed legal.

Commission records also show that on just one day — June 30, the end of the financial year — four of Mr Palmer’s business entit­ies collectively donated $12.7m. This included the parent company of the struggling Coolum Resort.

The PUP’s agent for the declaration James McDonald did not return calls to The Australian over the missing $6m donation — revealed in the civil trial and uncontested by Mr Palmer or his legal representatives.

The records, which have only just become publicly available, show that the PUP’s accounts outstripped both of the state’s major parties, Labor and the Liberal National Party.

Labor declared donations and income of $8.4m, spending $7.9m in the 2013-14 financial year.

The LNP, a long-time benefic­iary of Mr Palmer’s donations, raked in $18.6m in the same period and spent $17.81m.

Initially, the PUP’s official Octo­ber 14 declaration of its finan­ces showed revenues of just $244,979 for the financial year and spending of exactly the same amount.

But the PUP amended its initial declaration on November 18, showing its receipts totalled $28.76m and payments of just $300,375.

The revenues included a personal donation under Mr Palmer’s name of $101,833 and $2.8m in taxpayer funding.

The rest of the donations to the PUP were made through four of Mr Palmer’s privately owned companies: Mineralogy, Queensland Nickel, Palmer Leisure Australia and Palmer Coolum Resort.

Mineralogy, which controlled the operating account of the West Australian port now at the centre of the civil trial, made only a $50,916 donation to the PUP last year. But on June 30 this year it poured $8.18m into the party in two separate donations.