Australia’s most renowned billboard hoarder Clive Palmer has shown that his big political spending is not only limited to elections, but also to political donations. Palmer’s company Mineralogy has topped the list of Australia’s highest political donors — and it’s not even the first time.
Every year the Australian Electoral Commission (AEC) release the numbers on annual political returns, which includes how much each party received in donations in the financial year of 2022-2023.
According to the AEC, Palmer’s mining company donated over 10 times, and had a total amount of $7.1 million donated.
And all that money only went to one party… Palmer’s very own United Australia Party, who is represented by one elected representative, Senator Ralph Babet.
Fun fact: the amount of money donated by Palmer’s Mineralogy company was more than double what the next highest donor was — a mere $3.5 million from the Cormack Foundation to the Liberal Party.
Okay, admittedly less fun, and more worrisome that these giant companies are able to donate unfathomable amounts of money to politicians.
It’s not like anything bad has happened due to billionaires trying to buy their way into politics — *cough* Donald Trump *cough* Rupert Murdhoch *cough* Gina Rineheart *cough*.
Clive Palmer makes headlines every election spending more than what either of the major parties spend on advertising. You might remember all the texts you received from the UAP’s Craig Kelly, or all the billboards and YouTube ads featuring Palmer?
Thanks to all that spending — and a healthy dose of persuading anti-vax voters during the 2022 Federal Election — Palmer has been able to infect the Australian government from the inside, by throwing whatever funding he needs at literally one senator.
Don’t forget that up until 2018 the United Australia Party used to go by a name that reflected its allegiances more obviously: the Palmer United Party.
Palmer can ensure that his pro-mining ideology is represented thoroughly by Ralph Babet — an ex-real estate agent who describes himself as a “conservative and staunch patriot” on X (formerly Twitter).
Why I support Donald Trump and why you should too.
— Senator Babet (@senatorbabet) January 30, 2024
Join The Movement – https://t.co/4pOujssPP5 pic.twitter.com/SjU9kdLQQL
The above video where Babet declares why he’s a Trump supporter shows exactly the kind of video production budget that all his sugar daddy Palmer’s money is able to buy.
In this journalist’s opinion, Clive Palmer is one of the most dangerous people in Australian politics and shouldn’t be trusted as far as he can be chased down the street dressed as a giant phone.
@chaser.com.au Decided to pay Clive Palmer back for all those f*^cking text messages
♬ original sound – The Chaser
Handsome lad that phone guy.
If you want to learn more about how political donations work in Australia, the documentary Big Deal by Christian Van Vuuren and produced by Craig Reucassel has a wealth of knowledge on the topic. But not as much wealth as the people like Clive Palmer who make the donations.
The worst thing about this type of donation being allowed in politics is how it makes the entire system look bad.
Because why is a governmental system like the ABC forced to be so impartial on every topic, when the governmental figures themselves can accept donations by billionaires?
