Clive Palmer’s $50 million election bid amid Elon-Musk inspired plan for Australia

Billionaire Clive Palmer plans to drop $50 million on the election campaign, calling for a Elon Musk-inspired overhaul on government “waste”.

Billionaire Clive Palmer has slammed Labor’s $5 tax cuts as cheap and a “bloody insult” as he outlined his backing for an Elon Musk-style attack on government waste to fund bigger tax relief.

Australia’s answer to Donald Trump has confirmed he plans to drop $50 million on the election campaign to back his Trumpet of Patriots candidates.

But Mr Palmer has taken aim at both sides of politics revealing he will spend as much “as my wife allows me”.

In an exclusive interview with news.com.au, Mr Palmer insisted that Labor’s new tax cuts looked like a “crass” electoral bribe and could be larger if Elon Musk-style cuts to government waste were made.

“I thought the $5 really was a bit, crass, a bit sort of cheap,’’ he said.

“(Anthony Albanese) says, ‘I’ll give you a $5 for your vote.’ It sort of went to the integrity of the voter, but it wasn’t something done as an economic measure.

Clive Palmer has confirmed he plans to drop $50 million on the election campaign. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

“It was an afterthought. That’s what I thought. If you’re really thinking about making a tax cut should make a significant one.

“A throw away at the top of the election is a very cheap disregard for the integrity of the Australian voter.”

Mr Palmer famously spent $121 million at the 2022 election without securing a single House of Representatives seat.

While new limits are proposed to limit rich-lister donors spending up big in federal election campaigns, the changes won’t kick in until after the 2025 election.

Now, his new group he dubbed the Trump-et of Patriots is poised to do it all again and he could provide a boost to Peter Dutton’s chances, funnelling independent and conservative votes to the Liberal Party.

Mr Palmer is the Chairman of Trumpet of Patriots. Picture: NewsWire / Martin Ollman

Asked how much he plans to spend this time around Mr Palmer said it was under negotiation “depending how much my wife says I can spend”.

“It would be more than $50 million. It’s a shorter campaign,’’ he said.

The former MP has previously told journalists that of his forays into politics “this is my golf”.

“At 70, I could join many Australians and play lawn bowls, right? I find this more exciting, talking to you, than playing lawn bowls,” he said.

Peter Dutton’s big mistake

Mr Palmer also took aim at Peter Dutton, warning he had made “a major mistake” on energy policy.

“I think it’s major mistake for Peter Dutton to say he’s going to pay a nuclear power but this won’t be delivered until 2040,’’ he said.

“Anything the government does, experience tells us, it costs five times more.

“As far as nuclear power goes, I think. It’s the government’s role to facilitate people to do things.

“It’s for the market to determine what’s the cheapest.

“So, I think he’s made an error here. Not for nuclear power. But an error for saying that it’s going to be built by the government.”

Mr Palmer is also backing fast trains in Australia to tackle the housing crisis allowing workers to use their super to buy a house.

“There’s no reason why the government can’t use its balance sheet to provide housing loans for people,” he said.

“When it comes to the energy policy, we would say that it should be open to the market to determine.”

Government waste

“The top priority, I guess, is waste,’’ he said.

“What measures they do to reduce the expenditure. You don’t need as much tax people as much, you can have a more meaningful tax cut, (if you can reduce tax.)

“The next thing I think we have to look at is the proper allocation of our budget, especially to have a look at Elon Musk.

“It’s not a question of sacking public servants, I think that’s the way to bring cost down as redefining what they do.

“That won’t be one public servant Australia who doesn’t know the fact that his job could be better if the government shows leadership to try to eliminate government waste.”

Mr Palmer is backing an Elon Musk-style crackdown on wasteful government spending. Picture: Brendan Smialowski/AFP

US President Trump inspiration

During a wild press conference in Canberra last month, Mr Palmer agreed he was inspired by US President Donald Trump and vowed to Make Australia Great Again.

One of the big issues he declared was that Australian families can’t afford to eat.

“There’s over 3.7 million Australian households in this country that don’t have enough food, that can’t afford it because of the cost of living that the Labor Party has brought upon them because of the excess spending and waste in our public service’’ he said.

“Because I want to encourage other Australians, other billionaires that do nothing all day but sit on their arses to put some money in. But it hasn’t had that effect. People tend to like to keep their money, so I think the government should step in there.

“And that’s why Australia hasn’t had real democracy. That’s why we haven’t brought the hard questions to government departments that Elon Musk is doing in Washington at the moment and that’s why we’ve wasted the public’s money.”

Mr Palmer said that immigration was “destroying our infrastructure, roads, schools and hospitals, creates congestion and the destruction of communities

Originally published as Clive Palmer’s $50 million election bid amid Elon-Musk inspired plan for Australia