I can’t speak to the experience of people living elsewhere, but if you live in Queensland, right now you simply cannot escape seeing Clive Palmer‘s face. Grinning like a drunk uncle in front of a dazzlingly yellow background, Palmer’s billboards are, in no uncertain terms, fucking everywhere.
[jwplayer CwUqv6Y6]
The former leader of the Palmer United Party is having another crack at politics, this time as the United Australia Party, which Palmer claims will contest all 150 seats at the next federal election. Palmer appears to be copying Trump’s homework in a number of avenues with this stab at politics, from his slogan to his branding to his messaging to the collection of 4chan-adjacent anti-semitic edgelords that have, for whatever reason, accrued around him.
In addition to the people pursuing him for hundreds of thousands of dollars in unpaid wages, Palmer is now facing the wrath of Twisted Sister, who have objected to Palmer’s use of a bastardised version of We’re Not Gonna Take It in his campaign.
In a tweet this morning, guitarist ‘Jay Jay’ French said they were trying to see how they could get Palmer to knock it off:
Twisted Sister does not endorse Australian politician Clive Palmer, never heard of him and was never informed of Clive Palmer’s use of a re -written version of our song Were Not Gonna Take It.
We receive no money from its use and we are investigating how we can stop it.— Jay Jay French (@jayjayfrench) January 1, 2019
Frontman Dee Snider specifically took issue with Palmer not being pro-choice:
No we do not endorse @PalmerUtdParty! We are contacting our legal team to address this and if that doesn’t work…I’LL BE DOWN UNDER IN THREE WEEKS TO DEAL WITH IT MYSELF! https://t.co/h9T2O2GAkQ
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) January 1, 2019
“We’re Not Gonna Take It” is a song about EVERYONE’S right to free choice. “We’ve got the right to chose and there ain’t no way we’ll lose it!” The FIRST LINE of the first verse! Clive Palmer and the @PalmerUtdParty are NOT pro choice…so THIS AIN’T HIS SONG!
— Dee Snider🇺🇸🎤 (@deesnider) January 2, 2019
Twisted Sister is not the only band to object to Palmer using their music. Last year, Chumbawamba had a video of Palmer’s taken down for its unauthorised use of their hit song Tubthumping, with the band describing Palmer as a “Donald Trump-lite egomaniac“.
In a statement, Palmer said that he “wrote the words personally that appear on our promotion and [holds] the copyright for those words” —those words being “Australia ain’t gonna cop it / no Australia’s not gonna cop it / Aussies not gonna cop it anymore“. Inspired stuff.
I don’t know about you lot, but I for one am thrilled to see the roughly 150 complete fruitbats this man manages to convince to run as candidates.
