Why we need to worry about the real Clive Palmer

CONTRARY to the flim-flam and spin, Clive Frederick Palmer is not a professor, not an adviser to the G20, not a mining magnate, not a legal guru and not an advocate for freedom of speech. He's probably not a billionaire. And he's a trillion-to-one chance of becoming prime minister on Saturday.

If the latest polls are correct, however, there is one disturbing prospect: the Gold Coast property tycoon, a man with a history of peddling fantasies that often morph into a unique version of "reality", could see his party in control of the sixth Senate seat in Queensland - and possibly even Australia's balance of power.

Palmer, who cut his political teeth as an electoral mouthpiece a quarter-century ago for a bent premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen, when the rottenness of the ruling National Party and its top police was on the brink of being properly exposed, must now be pinching himself.

What's the problem if he exerts his unsubtle influence in Canberra; helps shape crucial public policy; and leaves his indelible stamp on the national economy, the jobs market, health and education, businesses large and small, the resources sector, the environment, tourism and even foreign relations? The problem is that so much of Mr Palmer's spiel seems to be make-believe. Australians who have taken great parts of the narrative at face-value based on what they have read and viewed have been conned. A barrage of misleading, expensive and increasingly heavy marketing in the election campaign is working.

The Australian has spent months examining his track record. Verifying the facts that are omitted from his media releases, testing his answers and statements, scrutinising his business ventures, company records, court and legal documents, and hearing the disclosures of senior staff, politicians and others who have been close to him.

AUDIO: Hedley Thomas talks about Clive Palmer on 2UE's A Sydney Morning with Paul Murray (MP3)

The results of this scrutiny do not augur well for democracy or the economy in the event of the Palmer United Party securing the Senate seat in Queensland.

The first myth is that Mr Palmer is a highly successful businessman.

In truth, he has been adept at identifying distressed assets, buying them relatively cheaply and running them until they become a laughing stock and more unviable.

Rather than growing jobs, he has been a net destroyer of jobs in Queensland. His nickel refinery at Townsville and the once-respected Hyatt resort at Coolum on the Sunshine Coast are two examples of the past few years. Poor operational decisions by Palmer, who does not brook dissent, have cost people their livelihoods. Environmental problems and shutdowns loom at the nickel refinery. Dinosaurs reign where tourists fear to tread at Coolum. There do not appear to be many businesses in his corporate group that run profitably. But as some of his businesses sink further into the red, and as experienced personnel leave, he has seconded his remaining managers as reluctant election candidates.

The crafting of the Palmer image and success in the Senate, if it eventuates, will be due in part to hollow publicity stunts (any evidence yet of Titanic II?) and fawning profiles that gloss over the true state of his performance, finances and balance sheet. The 60 Minutes snow-job earlier this year was a keeper. It has played on a continuous loop in the rooms at the resort. Another soft feature in The Australian Financial Review yesterday could not have been written better by Palmer himself.

A second myth is that Palmer is a mining magnate. In truth, if mining means building mines to extract resources and processing them, he mines nothing. He achieved control of iron ore reserves in the Pilbara when another company took its eye off the ball. Now he is a rent-seeker from Chinese company CITIC Pacific, which kicks itself for paying him too much money (a little more than $US400 million in two separate tranches) and being contractually bound to develop this low-grade iron ore in Western Australia. It has cost the Chinese dearly - a staggering $7 billion-plus for development and infrastructure so far due to the budget and deadline blowouts, and still not a single export shipment. There have been several thousand employees in this venture, but they work for CITIC Pacific and its subsidiaries - not Palmer, despite his claims to the contrary.

For their trouble, the Chinese executives of the Beijing-controlled company are abused. Palmer has yelled at them to "get back to China". Earlier this year, in a legal letter obtained by The Australian, he demanded $200m in royalties from the Chinese and threatened they would be blamed for him sacking 1000 of his own staff unless he got paid. His staff seem to have become confidential bargaining chips.

The legal stoush exposed another Palmer falsehood: contrary to his claims, he does not receive $500m a year in royalties from CITIC. He does not receive $1m. He might not receive anything at all unless he succeeds in litigation that could take years to finally conclude.

It is a given that, ordinarily, it is not in a country's best interests to be ruled by fantasists or those who are accused of being loose with the truth. Is it delusional of Palmer to insist on everyday use of the title "professor" when he knows he does not have tertiary qualifications and that this honorary title gives him no such entitlement? Is it delusional of him to insist that he has been elevated to the rank of "president of the World Economic Forum", and "secretary-general of the World Leadership Alliance", and will be a key adviser to the G20, when in truth he secured the titles by confidentially donating more than $500,000 to a cash-strapped and little-known Spanish think-tank that duly "appointed" him?

Is it delusional of him to insist that he has never lost a court case when he has lost many?

Is it odd, when he is challenged on the falsehood, to suggest that he is justified in claiming a 68-nil record because in his mind he could have won the ones he lost if he had only appealed?

Does running a viable soccer club on the Gold Coast from profitability to extinction within three years fill you with confidence in his business skills? Does a community losing the enormous benefits of the Australian PGA golf tournament, an event successfully conducted at the Coolum resort for a decade before Palmer's intervention led to the organisers fleeing, make you wonder about his negotiating skills?

Is it delusional to tell the Australian public that it is viable to produce a balanced budget that will include big cuts in income tax for every Australian, rich or poor, the abolishment of fringe benefits tax, the mining tax and the carbon tax, while at the same time asserting an intention to massively increase all age pensions and boost spending on infrastructure, schools and hospitals, with health spending to be increased by no less than $80bn?

If the answers are yes, contemplate the prospect of Palmer's insight, logic and capability being deployed via his candidate, Glenn "The Brick With Eyes" Lazarus, in the Senate. Many voters say "at least Clive is entertaining". Buffoons are entertaining. An entertaining buffoon is close to achieving great political power.