the rise of clive palmer

A profile on Clive Palmer will appear in tomorrow's Weekend Australian Magazine.
http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,25197,24983762-5010800,00.html

I wonder what the "surprising revelation about his memoir" is all about??

Some extracts:


The rise of Clive Palmer

January 30, 2009
Article from: The Australian

CLIVE Palmer's money and connections make him a force to be reckoned with in Queensland. Writer Sean Parnell meets the mining mogul in tomorrow's Weekend Australian Magazine. Here is an extract:

PALMER likes some aspects of his life to remain a mystery. Get the self-made billionaire, mining magnate and aspiring political kingmaker started on Australian politics or business and there’s a healthy dose of big talk and swagger, but mention anything too personal and he ducks and weaves faster than the days when he was running around the footy field as a teenage winger for the Southport Tigers rugby league team.

AUDIO: Sean Parnell on Clive Palmer

BRW last year estimated his personal wealth at $1.5 billion. (Palmer says the figure is too conservative and claims a fortune of $6.5 billion, which would make him the nation’s richest man).

His private company, Mineralogy, owns about 160 billion tonnes of iron ore reserves in the Pilbara, which might yield vast profits in the decades to come, although Chinese demand is waning because of the global financial crisis.

Late last year, at the suggestion of his 18-year-old son, Michael, Palmer seized control of the Queensland-based company Waratah Coal, which holds huge, undeveloped thermal coal resources in the Galilee Basin. “I only had to look at the figures with Michael, look at what they’re doing, and decide, yes, we can do that, in about three minutes,” Palmer gloats.

The burly 54-year-old maintains lavish homes in Brisbane, the Gold Coast, Perth and Beijing, runs three private jets and two helicopters, has dined with Vladimir Putin and Pope Benedict, counts US senator Ted Kennedy as a good friend, and has had John Howard over for steak and oysters.

He established Cold Mountain Stud to upgrade the bloodlines of Australian harness pacers, and last year flamboyantly celebrated his $6 million purchase of soccer team Gold Coast United by landing his helicopter near the team’s new home ground, Skilled Park, and announcing to reporters that GCU was a new A-League heavyweight. Soccer, he declared, was also the best game for lifting his profile in China.

A staunch Catholic, Palmer is setting up a $100 million charity for indigenous communities in the Pilbara, mainly to provide medical care, but his financial clout has become a migraine for Queensland’s Labor Government.

A life member of the Nationals since 1990, he was a key figure in the recent merger of the Nationals and the Liberals, and now – as Queensland heads into a state election – he’s the powerful and generous sponsor of Lawrence Springborg’s bid to win the premiership.

So powerful that Anna Bligh’s Government has accused Palmer of “buying” the Liberal National Party for his long-term business interests. “In my view, there is something just not right about one billionaire owning their own political party,” complains Bligh. “I don’t think that’s healthy in a democracy and I think Queenslanders are going to have a lot of questions about it.”

Springborg has dismissed Labor’s claims as “almost hysterical supposition”. Palmer says they’re “bullshit”.





Read The Weekend Australian Magazine tomorrow for the full profile on Palmer, including a surprising revelation about his memoir.