Mercurial mining magnate Clive Palmer has played up his personal links to Tasmania in a pitch to win votes in the state.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Mr Palmer, the leader of the United Australia Party, stopped in Hobart and at the Country Club in Launceston on Thursday afternoon to detail his policy to create a 'special economic zone' in Tasmania, designed to incentivise investment here.
He says the plan would see Tasmanian businesses and individuals receive tax cuts of 20 per cent. That's despite concerns the policy would be unconstitutional.
IN OTHER NEWS:
The controversial billionaire, who has been accused of trying to buy seats in the Federal Parliament through a big-spending campaign, is polling well, with the latest Newspoll suggesting the UAP is tracking at 5 per cent of the primary vote. Mr Palmer has been lambasted for not having paid outstanding entitlements to workers at his Queensland Nickel refinery, which collapsed more than three years ago.
On Thursday, he said his father was a member of the original United Australia Party, which was established in 1931 by political dissidents including former prime ministers Billy Hughes and Sir Joseph Lyons. It was after this party that Mr Palmer named his own.
"[My father] established Radio 7UV in Ulverstone," he said. "I've got the recording of Joseph Lyons and him together at Radio 3AK in Melbourne, which he established also."
"My mother was a member of the United Australia Party. She was born in Penguin and she left Tasmania to work in munitions manufacturing during the Second World War.
"My great-great-uncle left here to join the 40th battalion and served in World War I, never to return to Tasmania. He gave his life for the state that he loved.
"So there was a link in my family [to the original UAP]."
Mr Palmer said he had "about 200 cousins" in Tasmania.
"They're all through the length and breadth [of the state] my aunties tell me," he said.
The Clark UAP candidate in Southern Tasmania, James 'Jim' Starkey, has attracted controversy in the past week, after relatives of Sir Joseph Lyons, who was born in Stanley, disputed his claim to being a descendant of the former PM.
"Joseph Lyons had 12 children," Mr Palmer said. "And you've got one set of children, if you like, descendants of those 12, saying that [Mr Starkey is not their relative]."
"You haven't got it being said by all of [his descendants]. And, of course, we've looked back at him before he was endorsed, and if you do a Google search, you'll find there are a number of articles, not recent articles, but ones going back 10-20 years which set all of this up.
"I don't want to put myself or the party in a family dispute. That's something, really, you should try to keep out of politics. We've got no reason to believe that he's not the person he says he is.
"Josef Stalin's family was dramatically opposed to things that he believed in and defected to the United States."
Mr Palmer has faced criticism for saying his party is the same party as the original UAP.
"A lot of the members of our party do have parents or grandparents who were members of the main party," he said. "What makes the party the same, though, really is not just people and family ties but [also] the sort of things you believe in, it's the philosophy that goes with it."
"If you go back to the United Australia Party in the '30s, it was putting Australia first with practical solutions."
Mr Palmer said he'd received the Hughes family's blessing to take on the UAP name, but did not confirm that he'd received the blessing of the Lyons family.
I don't think we're living in an age of kings, where ... because my dad did something for four or five generations, I've got exclusive rights and use of that.
- Clive Palmer
"I don't think we're living in an age of kings, where ... because my dad did something for four or five generations, I've got exclusive rights and use of that," he said. "I just don't think that's true. That's not what we want as Australians."
Labor has been putting pressure on the Liberals for doing a preference deal with the UAP, but ended up themselves preferencing UAP candidates second on their Clark and Franklin tickets in Tasmania.
"You might be surprised when [Opposition Leader] Bill Shorten attacks me so much why they're giving preferences in two House of Representatives seats in Tasmania," Mr Palmer said. "So there's a general consensus out there that what we're saying is right."
"We think we can win seats in Tasmania."
Mr Palmer signed off at his Country Club event by saying, "God bless Tasmania, God bless Australia".