Palmer digs deep to sway voters
Unvaccinated mining billionaire Clive Palmer is funding the most expensive political campaign ever mounted in Australia, in a move that could stop the Labor Party from winning the general election.
Palmer, Australia’s seventhrichest man, has been described by many as a homegrown version of Donald Trump because of his disaffected far-right constituencies, privilege and plump stature.
He boasts that he has an annual mining royalty income of A$600 million (NZ$643m), mostly derived from Chinese mining companies that operate across his vast West Australian iron ore interests.
‘‘It’s only a couple of months’ work for me,’’ Palmer said this week of the A$100 million (NZ$107m) his highly populist United Australia Party (UAP) is spending on print, TV and online advertising ahead of the May election, which polls predict the opposition Labor Party to win.
With a net worth of A$13.01 billion (NZ$14b), Palmer was the country’s seventh-richest man last May, according to the Australian Financial Review Rich List. He is credited with helping to keep Labor out of office in the last general election in 2019, when he spent A$88m – much of which paid for advertising that denigrated Bill Shorten, the Labor leader at the time.
For the forthcoming election, the UAP claims to be campaigning against both Labor and the ruling centre-right coalition led by Prime Minister Scott Morrison. However, Labor strategists fear that this will not last and Palmer will again turn on their party.
Normally based at his riverside mansion in Queensland, Palmer has temporarily relocated to Sydney Harbour, living aboard his A$40m (NZ$43m), 60-metre superyacht Australia.
A flashy, provocative presence in Australian business and politics, Palmer denied for months that he would be a candidate, but he will now stand for the senate.
Championing ‘‘freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, and freedom of association’’, the UAP is vehemently opposed to pandemic lockdowns and vaccine passports.
It also wants agricultural land sales to foreigners curbed, an inquiry into the influence of Chinese government-owned companies in Australia, and a network of fast trains.
This week the party unveiled more than 150 candidates for the Australian parliament in full-page newspaper advertisements that included their photos and personal phone numbers. Most are obscure political novices bar Craig Kelly, a disaffected MP who has relocated from the government back benches after Palmer appointed him leader of the UAP.
Kelly was banned from Facebook and Instagram over his posts promoting hydroxychloroquine and ivermectin as Covid-19 treatments and questioning the effectiveness of masks.
Kelly, who would become prime minister in the unlikely event that the UAP wins, this week suggested that Australian Federal Police used ‘‘sonic weapons’’ on anti-vaccine mandate protesters in Canberra last weekend.