United Australia Party leader Clive Palmer has unleashed on Today‘s Deborah Knight this morning in a long rant about his wealth, fake news and the apparently growing popularity of his party.
According to the latest Newspoll, UAP’s polling is at five per cent of the primary vote weeks out from the federal election.
This morning, however, Palmer said his party was more popular than it’s being reported as.
He told Knight: “That is just fake news of course. We are polling much higher than that. And there is 28 per cent of Australians that have yet to make their decision.”
When asked about the criticism from Labor’s Anthony Albanese who said Palmer fell asleep in parliament as was often absent during his term as MP for Fairfax, Palmer responded by saying “I’m a bad person”.
“Let’s face it, I’m a bad person. I’m a bad person. Who cares about me? We care about this country,” he said.
He added: “Do you think I give a stuff about what you personally think or anyone else… I care about this country.”
When Knight asked Palmer if he would pay the $7 million he owes to workers at his failed Queensland Nickel company, he shot her down.
“You’re not listening. I said to you a minute ago that I will be paying $7 million into a trust account of a solicitor who will disperse that money to the workers that make the claim.”
Palmer also refused to confirm if he had made a preference deal with the Liberal party and prime minister Scott Morrison.
He also said Bill Shorten was a liar and Labor’s claims they had made brief and informal approaches to him about a preference deal were false.
Palmer has reportedly spent $60 million om advertising campaign, bombarding Australian voters with text messages and TV ads.
According to Forbes, he is worth $1.8 billion, coming in at number 20 on the Australian Rich List.
