And true to form, Clive says his stand on marriage equality is "secret".

"CLIVE Palmer says he’ll never express his stance on gay marriage because he doesn’t want to intimidate members of his party into adopting his view. Mr Palmer also criticised Prime Minister Kevin Rudd’s decision to change his position on marriage equality when the mining magnate was quizzed on gay marriage."

http://www.australianmarriageequality.org/tag/clive-palmer/

Not wanting to intimidate members of his party is a furphy - Jackie Lambie said she opposed repealing the carbon tax, but after a chat with Clive, she changed her stance. Looks like Clive doing his usual shilly-shallying on this as he does on everything. I think he can be bought, and I don't trust him at all, on this or any other issue.

...I don't trust him or the old AUP which PUP is based on. I told the friend who asked me the question this, and got me curious as to his stand. I am a Greens voter, and so don't pay much attention to the other parties at all, except for the scum we have as our "elected" officials currently.

when PUP will hold balance of power. If he sides with Libs, even Labor and Greens combined can't defeat legislation.

...I am on a carers pension, my housemate is on a DSP (I am her carer), together we accumulate six mouths to feed (her 3 children, my 1 child) and as it is we struggle from week to week. I fear what July brings.

I can't believe they will get a second term after this. It's the most spiteful and vindictive budget I can remember. I think it's deliberately targeting those who would most likely have voted Labor/Green. You can't run a country that way.

And to think we have to pin our hopes of stopping it on PUP!

And, BTW, it's nice to see you here again after so long away.

I feel we are going to face quite a number of years under a LNP Gov. I think the Libs are going to give Abbott the boot and place Turnbull or someone in his place. Then they will sweeten the deal by giving out some tax breaks and the like. While this is happening, Australia will forget about Abbott and Hockey, and will electing the Libs into power.

PUP and Turnbull have some sort of deal in the works. All week Palmer has been quiet in Parliament Question Time, then yesterday (the day after the secret dinner) he stood up and asked Abbott some question about his budget. I reckon Turnbull has asked Palmer to help bring Abbott down.

And you are absolutely right about them targeting Labor/Green voters. I vote Green, as do many of my peers. But there are lots and lots of idiots in my small community who just love the Libs. Our Senator doesn't even respond to me when I ask a direct question on his Facebook page. I saw him in town the other day and wanted to shove his coffee in his face. LOL (I got stuck with Darren Chester, who believes the biggest problem we face in East Gippsland is the bat colony making a mess in Bairnsdale, rather than the poverty that runs wild here.)

The only fear the Libs would have is probably repeating the kind of fallout Labor suffered from switching leaders.

If Turnbull had the guts to resign from Cabinet over the NBN, I think he'd get a lot of ALP voters on side. He's too smart not to know Lib broadband plan is a load of rubbish, and I think Abbott maybe gave him the portfolio knowing it could wreck his chances.

...but clandestine dinner meetings always lead to something bad. On top of that, I have been watching QT each day since it returned last week, and Abbott and Hockey are being made to look like the fools they are.

I have also been reading a lot, and a lot of other people believe the end is nigh for both Abbott and Hockey. I think if they last until Abbott leaves on Wednesday, then I feel there will be a big move with in the ranks whilst he is out of the country. Then when he gets back, all hell is gonna happen. Then again, I may be wrong, and just wishful thinking. LOL But the signs are there.

Govt. were all very subdued today in QT - looks as if something's up.

The rest of the creeps on the front bench would all have to backtrack on everything they've been saying since September. I wonder if they have the guts? That would be a sight to see.

For a PM to be rolled after less than a year in office – that would be a record. Couldn't wish it on a better person.

...it was very quiet in QT today. Usually when Abbott avoids answering questions properly there is an uproar on the left, but today, it was subdued.

I would love to see him be rolled too. He set Julia up for it, so it would be nice to see the tides turn on him.

Sadly though, under a year wouldn't be a record. Our shortest time in history PM is Frank Forde, our 15th PM who only served 7 days. He came into office after Curtin died, and so Forde contested Chifley for the leadership, but lost.

Currently, there are only six PMs who have served under a year in office. Most (3) were from the Country party, 2 from Labor, and 1 from Free Trade party. So this means he would be the first lib to be ousted in under a year.

Resource: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Prime_Ministers_of_Australia_by_time_in_office

I don't trust him at all....

While most of us enjoyed a bit of a laugh at Clive putting a spoke in Abbott's wheel over the repeal of the carbon tax, it has been short-lived. Of course he's going to support the repeal - it's in his own business interests to do so. And the so-called ETS amendment, solemnly announced by Al Gore, is worth next to nothing. I think Clive must have put something in whatever Al Gore was drinking that day, and Gore is probably still wondering what happened.

A bit more surprising - or was it? - was his outburst against the Clerk of the Senate, Dr. Rosemary Laing, about advice she gave him which was contrary to his wishes. He shouted at her and told her to find another job. This was the Clive Palmer who told Tony Jones to "shut up" when Jones insisted he answer his questions without going off-topic, and who walked out on Sarah Ferguson on 7.30 when she tried to do the same. An arrogant bully. He's drawn universal condemnation from Labor and minor party Senators across the board (funny, but the Libs have remained quiet on the subject). He's woefully ignorant of parliamentary procedure, but tries to bully the experienced people whose job it is to make sure that senators don't shoot themselves in the foot.

Of interest to everyone but the very rich is the bill now being read in the Lower House, to introduce a co-payment for health care. It's worse than the original budget documents outlined and will hit pensioners and those on welfare very, very hard.

Will the self-styled friend of the Australian people vote against it, or will Abbott come up with a sweetener to persuade Clive to give it his support? If he sells out, I think he's finished - it's going to affect too many people, and even those for whom it isn't a big problem will remember that Clive couldn't be counted on when it mattered. Such is his complacency and self-belief, I think he truly may believe he's the Second Coming and therefore untouchable.

I think Clive will self-destruct, and I hope, the dreadful Jacqui Lambie - both have shown arrogant, bullying tactics (I can well believe she was in the army, and I'll bet she was hated), and a complete disdain for parliamentary protocols and even basic courtesy. There are those who have expressed the hope that they may become a third force in the Australian Parliament - no thanks, I hope and pray that the third force will be the Greens. They possess that precious asset, integrity. They're also generally blessed with intelligence, something that seems to be sadly lacking with PUP.

All in all, Australian politics is like living in a nightmare at the moment - we're surrounded at every turn by arrogance, cruelty, spite, and bullying.

Excellent, pithy article by Lenore Taylor in The Guardian:

"Tuesday’s circus involved the highly-contested future of financial advice (Fofa) reforms, which the government is seeking to weaken

A month ago Palmer sounded as though he was definitely opposed to the government’s changes. “What sort of an idiot tries to take away from Australians their normal rights to a fair go?” he said. “We’ll get rid of (the Fofa amendments). The men and women of Australia – the pensioners and working classes – should be allowed to rely on the advice they’re given.

On Tuesday his senators voted against disallowance of the changes, after the government agreed to introduce a series of minor amendments that the financial industry insists make no difference to what the government is doing or to consumer protections, but which add considerably to paperwork.

Palmer and his senators took this decision, he boasts, without any discussions with the relevant industry, because billionaires don’t need any advising."

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/15/the-palmer-pattern-cause-maximum-drama-then-support-government

"Billionaires don't need any advising". In a nutshell. Palmer's attitude to everything and everyone - he doesn't need to play by any rules, because he's rich enough to make his own rules.

And yes, he'll always come down on the side of the Tories, because it's in his DNA. He only left the Libs because Abbott and Newman wouldn't let him run the show. Now he's running it from the sidelines.

God help Australia.

Clive Palmer has been accused of “dishonesty” and assisting in a “fraudulent breach of trust” for his role in the use of more than $12m in funds from his former Chinese business associates, documents filed in the Queensland supreme court show.

A statement of claim filed on behalf of two Chinese owned companies – Sino Iron Pty Ltd and Korean Steel Pty Ltd – alleges that two separate payments of $10m and $2.167m of funds held by the Palmer-controlled company Mineralogy were made in breach of a purported agreement to spend the funds only on port management services.

The companies argue that instead the $10m amount was sent to Cosmo Developments Pty Ltd, which is controlled by Palmer and is also a defendant in the proceedings. The $2.167m amount was sent to Media Circus Network Pty Ltd, the companies allege. The Brisbane-based advertising firm has previously been ordered to produce details of the payment.

The documents say that Palmer “knowingly assisted” in an alleged breach of trust by Mineralogy for the two amounts. They said that Palmer signed two cheques that authorised the two payments to Cosmo Developments and Media Circus Network.

http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/jul/24/clive-palmer-dishonest-in-use-of-12m-from-chinese-companies-court-told


Clive really does seem to believe that as a billionaire, he doesn't have to play by any of the rules that apply to everyone else, either in business or in the parliament. As he said after his now-infamous stoush with the Chief Clerk of the Senate, "I didn't get to be a billionaire by taking advice from anyone else". Quite.

Trust him? I don't think so.

The Abbott government has secured the likely passage of its Direct Action carbon policy through the Senate.

The news comes as a result of an agreement reached yesterday between Environment Minister Greg Hunt and Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer, for the PUP to support the bill with minor amendments.

Once again, after tough talk and media stunts, Palmer has rolled over in the back rooms and done a deal in his own best interests. As the owner of several large coal and iron ore mines, Palmer has an obvious vested interest in ensuring a taxpayer-funded compensation plan for big polluters.

As we've argued many times, Direct Action is a fraudulent policy that can’t possibly reduce Australia’s greenhouse gas emissions to our target of a 5 per cent reduction by 2020.

What it will do is pay the biggest polluters in the country a total of $2.55 billion over the next six years. All for doing what everyone (except the most ardent climate denialists) agrees they must, if the world is to escape devastating warming: lower their fossil fuel pollution.

https://newmatilda.com/2014/10/30/palmers-climate-lies-should-come-no-surprise

According to current polls, support for PUP is slipping, notably in Victoria, which goes to the polls later this year – they're at 2%. The Greens are way ahead, on 13%.

I look forward to the day when people ask "Pup? Who?"