Clive, Anna Palmer skip campaign, spend day on $8.3m mega yacht
Clive Palmer splashed millions trying to unseat Labor but come election day, he and his wife Anna disappeared from the campaign trail and spent the day on their luxury $8.3m mega yacht.
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He splashed millions trying to turf Annastacia Palaszczuk from office with the frightening spectre of a Labor death tax, but Clive Palmer and his United Australia Party candidate wife were Halloween election day ghosts.
The billionaire businessman is believed to have spent more than the major parties on a spoiler campaign to remove the Palaszczuk government, with a $4.5m advertising blitz.
It included controversial messaging warning of a Labor death tax plan, which was slammed as “bulls--t” by Tourism Minister Kate Jones who said it was scaring elderly Queenslanders including her 91-year-old grandmother.
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But Mr Palmer and wife Anna went to ground on polling day. Both were notable no-shows in the knife-edge seat of Currumbin, where Mrs Palmer was standing and swapping preferences with incumbent LNP MP Laura Gerber.
While her opponents spent the day doggedly traipsing the booths to squeeze every last vote, she and her husband were rumoured to be cruising around Moreton Bay and the Brisbane River on their new $8.3m mega-yacht, Nancy Jean.
An avid Twitter user, Mr Palmer had not fired off a single tweet by late Saturday.
Mrs Palmer and other UAP candidates, including her husband’s personal pilot Carlo Filingeri, in the Coast’s 11 seats, preferenced LNP second on their how-to-vote cards.
Mrs Palmer starred in many of the UAP’s election ads but was rarely seen on the campaign trail.
A Palmer family spokesman claimed Mrs Palmer was out and about in Currumbin on election day.
But The Sunday Mail saw no sign of her, and candidates and booth workers, including UAP volunteers, said they had not laid eyes on her.
“You won’t see her,” a UAP volunteer said at one major booth.
Labor opponent Kaylee Campradt said she only saw Mrs Palmer on the first day or pre-polling last week “when the TV cameras were there”. Mrs Palmer gave a local TV interview in which she attacked Ms Campradt for wearing a white instead of a Labor red shirt.
“I haven’t seen her since – it’s laughable,” the Labor candidate said.
Ms Gerber had also not seen the woman whose votes could be crucial in helping the LNP hold the seat – and claimed not to care.
“I’m not focused on independents or minor parties, I’m absolutely focused on (winning) Currumbin,” she said. “It’s a clear choice between Labor and the LNP.”
Mrs Palmer gave an interview with Sky News from the stateroom of the Nancy Jean two nights before the election. She said she would “definitely not be supporting the Labor Party if she won Currumbin and helped hold the balance of power in state parliament.
“The Labor Party has shown they really can’t handle the economy of Queensland,” she said. “They’ve made some awful decisions on the border, keeping everyone locked up, destroying families and businesses – whole industries have been destroyed.”
Originally published as Clive, Anna Palmer skip campaign, spend day on $8.3m mega yacht