Another day, another beat up in The Australian: Clive Palmer

Media release

Palmer United Party federal leader Clive Palmer has dismissed an article in today’s The Australian newspaper (‘Big Spender: why BHP worried about selling Clive Palmer its refinery’) as yet another unsourced beat-up.

Mr Palmer said it was understandable that The Australian’s editor Chris Mitchell would do anything to try and reverse the paper’s declining circulation in a week when his boss Rupert Murdoch was visiting Australia, but it would not work in the long run.

“The Australian is just exposing itself as a propaganda lapdog for Mr Murdoch,” Mr Palmer said.

“One particular journalist has written tens of thousands of words about me over the past six months, falsely calling almost every story an exclusive even though he is merely following up other publications.

“These articles, including today’s story about the Queensland Nickel refinery, are just nonsense. When we took over Queensland Nickel from BHP Billiton four years ago, it was facing closure. The refinery in 2013 remains a major source of employment in the Townsville region.

“We know that News Limited uses improper purposes to gain information as we saw with the News of the World affair, and they are probably employing similar tactics in Australia but have yet to be caught.

“My advice to Chris Mitchell and The Australian is to differentiate the paper through higher quality. You are trying too much to be like The Truth, which went out of business.”

“Chris Mitchell needs to lift his game and stop wasting shareholder funds on futile beat-ups. The Australian is supposed to be a highly respected broadsheet, so act like one.”

ENDS