Clive

Big-spending Queensland businessman Clive Palmer bought a football team, helped create a political party, and now wants to refloat the Titanic and build a dinosaur park. But are these just a billionaire′s fanciful splurges or something more calculated? The reality is that Palmer utilises his immense mining wealth (estimated over 6 billion) in a pro-active (albeit sometimes completely eccentric) global manner. His personal story is colourful and utterly intriguing. He spent time as a child in China and writes poetry. Clive is well known for his attention-grabbing statements that send the 24 hour news cycle into a spin. Shortly after Clive was named a National Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia, he made claims that the CIA was secretly backing green groups in a bid to kill the Australian coal mining industry. In true Clive fashion, in May 2012 he announced that he had employed state-owned Chinese company CSJ Jinling Shipyard to build a luxury cruise liner - the Titanic II - and that he would be seeking pre-selection for the Brisbane seat of Lilley and challenging Deputy PM and Treasurer Wayne Swan at the next Federal election.
Any biography of Clive Palmer would be, by the very nature of the subject, part business expose, part political insider piece, part rollicking tale, part dramatic elucidation of the man himself and the unconventional life he leads.
In 2012 Clive was the subject of ABC TV′s Australian Story
abc.net.au/austory/specials/largerthanlife/default.htm
Sean Parnell was born in the NSW country town of Inverell and lives in Brisbane with his wife and two children. A multi award-winning journalist, Sean has worked in the media for two decades and is currently the Health Editor and Freedom of Information Editor at The Australian newspaper.