Episode 298 - Part 3 - Clive Palmer

Clive Frederick Palmer (born 26 March 1954) is an Australian businessman and politician. He has iron ore, nickel and coal holdings. Palmer owns many businesses such as Mineralogy, Waratah Coal, Queensland Nickel at Townsville, the Palmer Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast, Palmer Sea Reef Golf Course at Port Douglas, Palmer Colonial Golf Course at Robina, and the Palmer Gold Coast Golf Course, also at Robina. He owned Gold Coast United FC from 2008 to 2012. Palmer created the Palmer United Party in April 2013, winning the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax in the 2013 Australian federal election and sitting as an MP for one term.

In 2018, after formally deregistering the party on 5 May 2017, Palmer revived his party as the United Australian Party, announcing that he would be running candidates for all 151 seats in the House of Representatives and later that he would run as a Queensland candidate for the Senate in the 2019 federal election, despite extensive advertising, he and his party won no seats. His party later contested the 2022 federal election, and won one seat in the Senate. The party was formally deregistered again in September 2022.

Palmer has frequently been involved in legal cases relating to his businesses, and once listed litigation as one of his hobbies in Who's Who. He at times has been involved in complex cases, and journalist Hedley Thomas has written that Palmer's "lawyers take legal steps, presumably on his instructions, that prolong litigation and rack up costs for the other side" which can result in his opponents being unable to continue their case due to a lack of resources. Palmer has argued that the litigation he is involved in is justified as it rights wrongs. Palmer also attempted to use litigation as a gag order against his workers in his now defunct Queensland Nickel refinery, promising to pay the money he owed them only if they agreed not to make any disparaging comments about him.

As of May 2023, Palmer was the fifth richest Australian, when The Australian Financial Review assessed his net worth at A$23.66 billion on the 2023 Rich List.