Palmer greasing the wheels of Qld government

After a series of disagreements with state premier Campbell Newman last year Clive Palmer quit the LNP and went his own way.  After a series of escalations since then, Clive formed his own party and contested the federal election, winning two senate spots and a possible third, and may yet have won a seat for himself.

Clive was one of the LNP’s major donors in the past, sparking claims to him owning the party.  Curiously though, despite having his own party in competition to them, he has turned up on their donors list: 

… The latest report from the Electoral Commission of Queensland on political party funding shows the LNP enjoyed some hefty contributions from the agricultural sector, oil and gas companies and property groups. 

Interestingly, almost hidden among the names is one Professor Clive Palmer, who made more than $40,000 in donations in June. 

Of course Mr Palmer reportedly quit the party in 2012 after a falling out with Premier Campbell Newman, and formed the Palmer United Party, which found much success at the federal poll. 

The Queensland Labor Party received $4.7 million in gifts and donations with a large percentage coming from unions while the state's Greens pocketed just $168,000 most of that from private benefactors. 

There was $160,000 for the Katter Party courtesy of seven pharmacy groups and $70,000 from the Sporting Shooters of Australia.

The LNP, especially the Nationals part, were notorious for a ‘you scratch my back, I’ll scratch yours’ approach to commercial approvals in the past so its possible that Clive doesn’t want too many obstacles put in the way of his future ventures.

The hefty contributions from the agricultural sector, oil and gas companies make interesting reading.  The agricultural sector has been battling against the unfettered access to their private property by the mining, oil, and gas sectors, which explains their interest.  Those sectors want better access to the land of the former.  Someone is going top get the rough end of the pineapple there.

It is not known why Bob Katter gets such large donations from big pharma.  It is possible though that Bob's preference swap with Labor gave them the idea that Bob and his party were on something, a lot of it and they decided to give some of the proceeds back.