WA politics was in uproar yesterday over the level of interaction between Queensland billionaire mining baron Clive Palmer and Premier Barnett’s government.
Documents received by VEXNEWS illustrate that the powerful figure in the Liberal National Party in Queensland takes a very hands-on role to dealing with government officials.
Prior to the 2007 federal election, Palmer wrote to the then federal Attorney-General Phil Ruddock and to the Indigenous Affairs Minister Mal Brough asking that they deem the accommodation attached to a port to be part of the port itself for the purposes of the Native Title Act.
What caught our eye in the documents is that Mineralogy – Palmer’s company – even drafted the written determination for the Attorney-General to just quickly sign off.
Very helpful. He might have also couriered a rubber-stamp too.
This correspondence probably just a little bit too cosy for those worried that Palmer, a huge donor to the LNP in Queensland, might exercise too much influence on politicians who are grateful for his largesse.
Needless to say, Mineralogy eventually obtained permission to build the accommodation facilities as part of the Cape Preston port, in north-west WA.
Palmer is understood to have been very generous to the National Party in WA, which has previously struggled for money and has been revitalised by their dynamic leader Brendon Grylls.
VEXNEWS (Archive) 
Don’t know about too much pull, but he does have too much fat
You would think with all that money he could get himself a decent haircut and colour?
Clive I’l pull your fat if you’ll pull mine!
I don’t think he pulls enough. If we are to stop these Greens from saving our forests, our environment and our water, then we need the Clive’s of this World to exert more power.
Only through the accumulation of personal wealth and influence can we stop these tree huggers from saving the planet.
More Clive’s I say. And yes, let him pull as much as he wants.
Is Clive single? I hope so. He can buy me a soya farm for Christmas
He looks as though he’s been ‘pulled’ many times by Mrs Palmer and her 5 daughters. Probably has that serial public lavatory dogger Alan Jones watching on.
Wendy if you hate the greens then why is Ted and scowly faced Ryan you preferencing them
Anon, that makes no sense at all. Are you still drinking at lunchtime?
The chief woman ‘Greenie Tree-Hugging Activist’ Wendy, who was responsible for getting horses banned from National parks and State forests, was climbing a tree to have a look out over the forest when a Tawny Frogmouth Owl attacked her for invading its nesting site.
In a panic to escape, she slid down the tree, getting a great number of splinters lodged in her crotch area. In considerable pain she hurried to the nearest doctor, and told him she was an environmentalist and how she got all the splinters.
The doctor, who was no environmentalist, listened with great patience and then told her to go into the examining room and he would see if he could help her. Wendy waited for 3 hours before the doctor reappeared. Angry, Wendy demanded, ‘What took you so long?’
“Well… Replied the doctor, “…I had to get permits from the Environmental Protection Agency; the Forestry Service; the National Parks and Wildlife Service; the Wilderness Society and the Department of Conservation and Land Management before I could remove “old growth timber” from a “recreational area”
I don’t know about Clive but I certainly have a lot of pull. You should have seem me and the Wench last night. I hope her in doors does not twig…
Palmer may not be pretty;
and he is as blunt as a 9lb hammer.
But “cosy” is not sending formal correspondence by fax, which by its very existence enters the record. Viz – the copy landed in Vexnews’ inbox with some addressees ‘redacted’.
“Cosy” is Gordon Nuttall driving around Brisbane with an open sack soliciting donations. That’s “cosy”.
Palmer is a bull in a china shop. But the windows are apparently wide open while he charges around.
Clive Palmer should do us all a favour by buying a shovel and going out into the “never , never” and digging another big hole and lay in it. Oh yes remember to put the dirt back.
I am impressed with stuff like this which proves that Vex News is a credible news medium