Why we need to worry about the real Clive Palmer
- From: The Australian
- September 05, 2013
- Clive, you've lost the plot: K...
- Rupert Murdoch's wife a spy: P...
- Campaign HQ: Moving targets
- Clive Palmer
Rupert Murdoch’s wife a spy: Palmer
Clive
Palmer attacks the News Corp boss and threatens to sue him over an
article in The Australian. Courtesy: Sunrise, Channel Seven
Palmer United Party founder Clive Palmer arrives at Sydney airport on his private jet.
Source: AAP
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.
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.
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