There are limits to who you call mate

FEW could claim to be quite as adept as Clive Palmer in attracting unusual sidekicks.

Clive Palmer and South Australian Premier Jay Weatherill. Picture: Ray Strange

FEW could claim to be quite as adept as Clive Palmer in attracting unusual sidekicks.

The man who lured former US vice-president and ecowarrior Al Gore to stand beside him when he unmasked his convenient conversion from climate change sceptic to believer was yesterday flanked by South Australian Labor Premier Jay Weatherill.

They became the odd couple at a press conference in Canberra in a joint attack on the government’s plan to scale back $80 billion in projected health and education funding over the next decade.

Here was a Labor Premier standing next to a conservative populist, the head and founder of the Palmer United Party, in the name of scoring points.

“It shows we are prepared to stand up with any Australian who is prepared to raise their voice against these cruel cuts to our healthcare system,’’ Mr Weatherill said when asked to justify his decision to appear with Mr Palmer.

Well, almost anyone. Mr Weatherill has drawn the line at Family First senator Bob Day.

Mr Weatherill describes the­ ­fellow South Australian as an “enemy’’ of the state and a “lost cause’’.

“Senator Day wants to cut more deeply than even Tony Abbott wants to cut,’’ the Premier told a Senate select committee on health yesterday.

“Senator Day wants to sell out South Australia to the Western Australians and hand over $1 billion of our GST payments. Senator Day is an enemy of South Australia. I don’t need to meet with him.’’

Senator Day hit back, saying the Weatherill government just wanted to “spend, spend, spend’’.

“The Premier shouldn’t come to Canberra just to listen to those who will tell him what he wants to hear, but to those with initiatives to help South Australia,’’ he said.

Mr Weatherill and Mr Palmer are also united in their opposition to plans for a $7 GP co-payment, with the Premier saying modelling in his state showed the tax would add more than an hour to the waiting times in the public hospital emergency departments.

Health Minister Peter Dutton said Mr Weatherill’s government had “failed to inject any substantial new funding into his health system, but for him — it’s all Canberra’s fault’’.