Clive Palmer was the biggest political donor, by a long shot, for the second Federal election in a row and his $116,857,807 spend finally bought him a seat in Parliament, that of Senator Ralph Babet.
AEC donations data was out this week, showing Palmer’s Mineralogy paid a thumping $116.8m to his own party, United Australia Party, which brings the sum to $206.6m over the past two election years. What’s the scam?
The scam is that while getting one seat in Parliament – Babet is an outspoken anti-vax, anti-climate, anti-woke, anti-trans real estate agent – for such a large amount of money does not look like value for money, you could argue that Clive’s money did swing the last election and mining approvals for his mining assets in Queensland.
“Cabal of Secrecy”: political donations data dump features $119 million from nowhere, “dark money”
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.