Many of us have seen or heard about Clive Palmer, but l wonder how many people “really know” Clive Palmer ?
Ok l must confess l do not know Clive Palmer personally, but l do know enough to say that Clive cops a lot of unfounded crap and criticism from the general media.
I have watched “Paul Murray Live” many times and have heard Paul Murray “Bag and Belittle” Clive Palmer. Janine Perret who is also on the Paul Murray Live show has also said some quite harsh things about Clive and the list of journalist who have jumped on the band wagon to talk poorly about Clive Palmer is long and unjustified.
The simple fact that Clive Palmer is extremely wealthy does not by definition mean that he is flawed or has ulterior motives for running for government.
Many might have jumped to the conclusion that Clive Palmer wanted to get into politics to throw a bit of weight around and improve things for his own business interests……. but that is simply ridiculous to think that he would even consider doing that, let alone the fact that it would be highly improbable that Clive Palmer could do it even if he wanted to.
I do remember watching a story on Clive Palmer a few years ago. The story mentioned a number of things but the one thing that stuck in my mind was the fact that Clive Palmer gave his employees a massive surprise (present) depending on how many years of service they had dedicated to Clive’s nickel refinery operations. Some employees got Mercedes Benz cars, others got overseas holidays, but the point was that Clive was generous enough to go above and beyond to reward those who had been a part of his team. This was a clear indication that Clive Palmer does appreciate the little people who contributed to that refineries success and he was generous enough to reward each and every one of them.
On a side note l also remember “Grendas Bus Lines” (Ken Grenda) did something similar when he sold his bus company for $400 million. He very generously gave the workforce a surprise cash bonus according to how many years of service and some workers got $100,000. In total l think Ken Grenda gave away $15 million dollars to his work force.
Anyways, back to Clive Palmer……I watched a press conference yesterday where Clive advised the media that he would be introducing a bill into parliament in the next 2 months to try and force the politicians to wait for their super until the same age that the rest of us are forced to wait. Currently politicians can access their superannuation at age 50….. YES! they can get their super at 50 years of age! Yet the rest of us have to wait until retirement age, which currently is 65, but as we know the Gillard/Rudd/Swann Labor government raised the retirement age to 67 and now the Tony Abbott LNP government are moving it further again to the age of 70. So while the pollies can still claim their massive super at age 50, we all get to work and work and work and eventually if we are still alive we can get our super at 70…. Well Clive Palmer thinks that is wrong and it is unfair, hence he will introduce a bill to try and make politicians wait until the age of 70 (like the rest of us)
While l was watching that press conference l learned that Clive Palmer is currently working as a politician for FREE! yes Clive Palmer gives away every penny of his parliamentarian salary to charities within his electorate. So not only is he trying to keep the bastards honest, he is doing it for zero financial gain for himself
I think there is a large percentage of people in Australia who might have jumped to the wrong conclusion about Clive Palmer due to the fact that he is a billionaire and/or because of the unfair media bias against him. But i will say the more you read and watch and learn about Clive Palmer the more you will realise that he is a damn good Australian and a very smart businessman who would run our country like a well oiled machine and he would ensure the entire Australian population were rewarded accordingly.