PALMER CALLS IN SICK
NO SHOW AT COAST EXPO
FAILED politician and comeback billionaire Clive Palmer has called in sick to a keynote speaker engagement on the Gold Coast in the wake of spending $60 million to boost the Liberal election campaign.
Perhaps exhausted from bombarding Australians with text messages and “we will win government” advertising, and worn down after siphoning every drop of yellow paint from signwriters nationwide, Mr Palmer cancelled his unpaid appearance at the Gold Coast Small Business Expo yesterday, citing illness.
Expo organiser Paula Brand was unimpressed.
“I think he’s sulking,” she said, outside the room which had filled with business people in unrequited anticipation of witnessing the mining magnate’s wisdom on small business issues.
“I think he’s disappointed he lost a federal election. Wouldn’t you be disappointed after spending $60 million and not winning a seat? But at the end of the day, if our business leaders can’t turn up it’s pretty poor form.”
Mr Palmer’s United Australia Party candidates, many of whom declined to say whether or not they’d been paid to stand, won 3.4 per cent of the overall vote but failed to secure a single seat in either house of Parliament.
He told ABC Radio his party’s preference deal with the Liberal National Coalition had pushed them to victory and said he’d intentionally used the campaign to block Labor from government.
“I’m very, very elated that we’ve got a strong government in Australia,” Mr Palmer said. “We’ve saved the country from ‘Shifty’
(Mr Shorten).”
As his political rivals wore out their shoes on the campaign trail, the former Member for Fairfax spent the last few days of his campaign holidaying in Fiji with his family.
More than 3600 people registered for this year’s Small Business Expos, with more than 216 exhibitors.
The Bulletin contacted Mr Palmer for comment.
A GROWING small business expo is expected to generate $2.2 million in sales leads for its 175 Gold Coast exhibitors after drawing a record number of attendees yesterday.
Small Business Expos CEO Paula Brand said the combined series of expos were now the largest in southeast Queensland.
Ms Brand said the city had long struggled with a lack of cohesion in the business community, fuelled by the competing interests of multiple chambers of commerce.
“We’ve grown because we’re passionate about collaborative cultures, we haven’t had a collaborative culture on the Gold Coast ever,” she said.
“This whole expo program has helped business move across the whole region.”
Ms Brand said having a one-stop-shop expo saved
small businesses from fronting up to networking and business events for multiple chambers of commerce.
Now in its fifth year, the expos series generated about $6 million in sales for exhibiting businesses last year across the expos in Brisbane, North Brisbane, Logan, North Gold Coast and South Gold Coast.
Exhibitor Lee Gamble, of All Pest Solutions, attended his first expo yesterday, bringing along a collection of creepy crawlies which drew special attention from the crowd.
“I’m pretty impressed with the turnout, there are a lot of businesses here,” he said.
“It’s a good mix of networking and building new leads so I’m quite happy with the result so far.
“It’s a bit unique selling and also being sold to.”
Tani Stubbs was demonstrating products for Oxenford business NAS Cosmetics.
“There are lots of people and it’s a great chance to showcase local businesses to other small businesses in the community,” she said.
The event was branded a success despite failed Senate candidate Clive Palmer, who was billed as keynote speaker for the event, calling in sick at the last minute.