Skype’s the limit for Clive Palmer as he points finger

CLIVE Palmer has refused to answer questions about whether he was entitled to funnel $12m to himself and his party.

CLIVE Palmer has refused to ­answer questions about whether he was entitled to funnel $12 million from a Chinese company to himself and his Palmer United Party, instead lashing out at media proprietors, the Chinese and the police.

In a conspiracy-theory-fuelled appearance at the National Press Club, the PUP leader insulted a journalist who pressed him about the case, and accused News Corp chairman ­Rupert Murdoch of ­giving orders to his Australian editors by Skype.

The issue overshadowed Mr Palmer’s appearance, which was intended to provide an overview of the party’s achievements during the year.

Chinese company Citic Pacific has launched civil action in the Queensland Supreme Court over $12m of Chinese cash that was withdrawn from an account which had been established to cover ­expenses from port operations for a West Australian iron ore project.

Mr Palmer paid $4m to advertising company Media Circus and allegedly “funnelled’’ $6m through his Cosmo Developments company into the PUP. He has ­denied any wrongdoing.

Mr Palmer attacked The Australian’s editor-in-chief Chris Mitchell and reporter Hedley Thomas over a report about the case and a report over a West Australian police investigation into the­ matter, which he claimed was not being handled in the usual fashion.

Mr Palmer said it was a civil case not a criminal case and he would not resign if the case went against him. He declined to comment further.

Pressed by The West Australian about why he did not ­testify in the case, Mr Palmer said coverage of the trial was a “beat-up”.

“Mainly ’cause Kerry Stokes wants to use some of my land at Cape Preston to put his port under and of course he’s very concerned about that.’’

Mr Palmer accused the Chinese government of spending millions on lobbyists in “trying to take control of our ports and our ­resources in this country and I’m standing up against that’’.

Asked by The Courier-Mail’s national political correspondent, Steven Scott, about the court case, Mr Palmer refused to answer.

When pressed, he insulted Scott and accused Mr Murdoch of giving directions via Skype from New York. “I’m not going to take that rubbish from you,’’ he said, before declaring Scott didn’t have the “intellectual capacity’’ to ask a question about another topic.

The Australian’s Mitchell said: “I’ve never skyped with Rupert Murdoch anywhere in the world in my life’’. He said the only conversation he’d had with Mr Murdoch about Mr Palmer was over whether the Queenslander had any real money to make him worth suing over his comments that Mr Murdoch’s ­former wife Wendy Deng was a Chinese spy.

He said Mr Palmer had settled all of his court actions against The Australian and paid his own costs.