Clive Palmer savagely trolls ABC political editor Andrew Probyn at National Press Club

By Charlie Moore, Political Reporter For Daily Mail Australia 07:15 07 Apr 2022, updated 07:15 07 Apr 2022

Clive Palmer savagely trolled the ABC in a testy exchange with one of its senior journalists on live television.

In a Q&A session after speaking at the National Press Club, the United Australia Party leader teased political editor Andrew Probyn about the broadcaster’s perceived left-wing bias.

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Probyn asked Mr Palmer how he will preference other parties at the May election and the mining tycoon joked: ‘Like the ABC, I’d be putting the Greens ahead of Liberal and Labor.’

Andrew Probyn (pictured) asked Mr Palmer how he will preference other parties at the May election and the mining tycoon joked: ‘Like the ABC, I’d be putting the Greens ahead of Liberal and Labor.’

As Mr Palmer’s candidates in the audience erupted with laughter, Probyn replied ‘Ok. I’ll take that as comment’.

The businessman said he will not include Labor and the Liberals in his ‘how to vote cards’ for the Senate and will order his House preferences based on ‘who is best for our policies’.

He said he would personally put the Greens above the Liberal and Labor parties because they have not been involved in racking up huge debts. 

In his speech – which was broadcast live by Sky News but on a delay by the ABC which was worried about him spouting anti-vaccine disinformation – Mr Palmer announced a populist policy to cap home loan interest rates at three per cent for the next five years.

The UAP leader claimed the policy would protect six million Australians from losing their homes if interest rates soar and their mortgage payments become unaffordable.  

‘We must protect all Australians, their assets and their way of life,’ he said.

Mining magnate Clive Palmer (pictured today with wife Anna) could play an important part in the 2022 election

The policy would almost certainly increase the rate of inflation and massively reduce credit availability.

It has been tried in African and South American nations with ruinous consequences. 

For example, Kenya capped rates at four per cent in 2016 but scrapped the cap in 2019 because loans dried up and it damaged economic growth. 

Mr Palmer admitted inflation may rise but said: ‘There are other things we can do about inflation’.  

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The mining billionaire said he would pay down Australia’s $1trillion debt in 20 years by introducing a 15 per cent licence fee on iron ore exports.

The move would affect his own investments but would not apply to ore processed in Australia.

He said Asian countries will be ‘desperate for our iron ore’ for years to come and Australia is well placed because South America is at full production and infrastructure in Africa ‘is a nightmare.’    

Clive Palmer announced his policies in a speech to the National Press Club on Thursday

Mr Palmer also said he would force superannuation funds to re-invest $1trillion onshore instead of overseas and also pledged to increase the pension by $180 a fortnight.

The UAP leader also wants to ban vaccine passports, prevent Covid lockdowns and border closures and build nuclear power plants in Australia.

The mining tycoon, worth an estimated $13billion, is spending about $70million on advertising his United Australia Party ahead of the May election.

His posters and billboards with the slogan ‘freedom, freedom, freedom’ have been impossible to miss for months and his adverts have taken over TV screens and newspapers. 

Clive Palmer supporters hold a banner saying ‘freedom, freedom, freedom’ at pro-choice protest in Sydney in November

Mr Palmer is running candidates in all 151 electorates, including vaccine sceptic Hughes MP Craig Kelly who defected from the Liberals, and also in the Senate.

The unvaccinated billionaire, who was ‘one day away’ from dying with Covid, is hoping to capitalise on pro-choice and anti-lockdown sentiment to improve on his 2019 primary vote of 3.43 per cent. 

Here, Daily Mail Australia takes a look at the 10 policies he has announced so far. 

No more lockdowns 

Even though Covid-19 lockdowns are over, Mr Palmer is campaigning against them, arguing they ’cause untold damage to both physical and mental health’.

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He also rails against state border closures –  claiming they breach Section 92 of the Australian Constitution – but there is little he can do to stop them after he lost a High Court challenge against Western Australia’s hard border in 2020.

A man holding a child walks past Victoria Police during the Eureka Freedom Rally anti-vaccination and anti-mandatory vaccination protest in Melbourne in December

Mr Palmer said Australian troops ‘must not be used to assist power-drunk State Premiers in violating our Constitution’ by closing state borders.

‘The UAP policy is to open the economy, open the borders and provide encouragement, confidence and incentives for businesses, especially small business to thrive,’ the UAP website says. 

No domestic vaccine passports

Mr Palmer is campaigning for an end to ‘vaccine passports’ which state premiers have imposed to stop unvaccinated people entering crowded venues such as pubs.

Vaccination reduces Covid-19 transmission but Mr Palmer points out that vaccinated people can still get infected and spread the virus. 

The unvaccinated billionaire is hoping to capitalise on pro-choice and anti-lockdown sentiment. Pictured: A freedom protest in Melbourne in November

He claims the passports are ‘divisive for all Australians, cause social problems and have the potential to worsen an already growing mental health epidemic’.

Mr Palmer said when states introduce vaccine passports, his party will ‘challenge their validity in the High Court on behalf of the Australian people’.

No vaccine mandates 

Mr Palmer is also fighting to remove vaccine mandates on the basis that ‘medical treatments should not be mandated from on high by government chief health officers who have not seen or examined the patients’.

He is also promoting anti-viral treatments for Covid which are not recommended by Government health experts. 

Abolish National Cabinet 

The UAP wants to dismantle the national cabinet, which Scott Morrison set up in March 2020 to deal with Covid.

The forum, the successor of COAG, comprises the PM and the state and territory leaders.

The meeting allows the leaders to discuss their policy approaches, but common ground has at times been hard to reach and Mr Palmer wants to get rid of it.

Nuclear power 

The UAP wants to end the ban on nuclear power in Australia, which has a third of the world’s uranium deposits.

The metal is the most common fuel for nuclear power plants but Australia only exports it rather uses it at home.

Clive Palmer wants to end the ban on nuclear power in Australia, which has a third of the world’s uranium deposits. Pictured: A nuclear reactor in the UAE

Mr Palmer believes nuclear power generation, which does not produce carbon dioxide, would provide Australian companies with ‘cheap power so they can compete internationally’.

Nuclear power provides 70 per cent of electricity in France, 20 per cent in the US and 15 per cent in the UK.

The Liberal Party is open to the idea but only if Labor also supports nuclear, which it does not.

Buy submarines from the US  

The Government has a plan to build up to eight nuclear-powered submarines before 2040 under the country’s AUKUS alliance with the UK and US.

But Mr Palmer says this is too late and wants to buy recently retired nuclear subs immediately from the US.

‘Australia must ensure our national submarine fleet is competitive with the nuclear submarines of our northern neighbours,’ the party’s website says.

Social media crackdown 

The UAP wants to stop websites such as Facebook, YouTube and Twitter from ‘censoring’ Australians.

All three have been deleting content that amounts to ‘disinformation’ even if it is not illegal. 

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, left, smiles next to his wife Priscilla Chan

The policy is similar to retiring Liber-National MP George Christensen’s proposal.

He introduced a private member’s bill into Parliament earlier this year to ban social media giants from removing profiles or deleting posts or videos which do not break the law. 

Tax breaks for regions 

The UAP is proposing a radical tax shake up that it claims would attract Australians to live in regional areas.

Mr Palmer wants to give a 20 per cent tax concession to anyone living more than 200km from a capital city.

He believes the move could help avoid a ‘future of heavy congestion, serious housing affordability issues and mounting cost of living pressures.’ 

Mr Palmer could potentially help Scott Morrison (pictured) secure re-election if he deems the Liberals to be more closely aligned to his vision Protect Australian values 

One of Mr Palmer’s policies is to ‘protect Australian values’ but there is scant detail on what this actually means. 

His website says: ‘We believe in the most basic freedoms of parliamentary democracy – freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from fear, and freedom of association.’

Process minerals at home 

Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy mines iron ore and thermal coal in WA and Queensland.

He wants to process more ores onshore rather than sending them overseas.

The processing stage involves separating the valuable minerals from the rocks around them.

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Mr Palmer would set up processing facilities in South Australia and Victoria, which are less resource rich, to spread mining wealth around the nation.