Media release
Better highways, hospitals and help for struggling farmers are just some of the hallmarks of federal Palmer United Party leader Clive Palmer’s time in office since becoming the Member for Fairfax.
Mr Palmer said he was honoured to be working for the people of Fairfax who until now had been taken for granted by the major parties for generations.
“I am pleased to be putting the people of the Sunshine Coast first for once,’’ he said.
“These achievements and on-going activities show that one person can make a difference and that a vote for any Palmer United Party candidate represents a valuable investment in Australia’s future – not a wasted vote,’’ Mr Palmer said.
“From local grass roots issues to matters of national importance which impact all our lives, I will continue to work hard to give the people of Fairfax the representation they deserve.”
Since becoming federal MP for Fairfax, Clive Palmer has:
- Ensured that a long promised $4.9 billion commitment to upgrade the Bruce Highway has become a reality
- Ensured that the Palmer United Party policy of lobbyists not holding executive positions within political parties was adopted by the Abbott government at their first cabinet meeting
- Ensured that the federal Treasurer, Joe Hockey, rejected an American company’s takeover bid for the Australian company GrainCorp, by: speaking out on the issue, rallying federal parliament cross-bench support against the proposal, and in particular, introducing a Private Member’s Bill into parliament requiring the Treasurer to reject the bid
- Ensured the Sunshine Coast Hospital was not sold to a private operator
- Ensured the Sunshine Coast was declared a drought area by the Queensland Government in March 2014, following weeks of inaction despite record breaking conditions
- Become a member of two key House of Representatives Committees: the Standing Committee on Economics and the Infrastructure and Communications Committee
- Introduced a Private Member’s Bill into Parliament to establish the Australia Fund to assist communities and businesses in times of natural disasters and market failures
- Opposed the inhumane treatment of, and economically costly policies towards, refugees and asylum seekers, which have been adopted by both the Government and Opposition
- Campaigned for reform of the Australian Electorate Commission and electoral procedures – criticisms which were vindicated by the AEC’s loss of 1,370 WA Senate votes (and the need for a new WA Senate Election, the very critical Keelty Report of the investigation into the loss of those ballot papers, and evidence of multiple voting by individuals in many electorates around Australia
- Opposed undemocratic surveillance and telephone tapping of Australian citizens and overseas Heads of State and their families by Government organisations – this campaign included his first Parliament Question to the Prime Minister on the issue
- Campaigned for the immediate upgrade of Sunshine Coast infrastructure, including the Maroochydore Airport and the duplication of the railway line to Brisbane
- Called for pension increases, particularly to former Australian Defence Force personnel and their families
- Sponsored an amendment to Government Legislation to fairly index DFRDB pensions for all recipients not just those 55 years of age and older
- Campaigned against the Newman Government’s ‘slash-and-burn’ economic strategies which are creating great misery, unemployment and lack of opportunity for many Queenslanders
- Campaigned against the Newman government’s undemocratic laws, which strike at all citizen’s rights and their freedom of association
- Called for fairer a distribution of GST revenue to the States by the Federal Government
- Championed the case for increased payments to single mothers and their children who are facing poverty
- Opposed the federal government’s intention to cease payments to orphans of members of the Defence Forces killed in action (a requirement of the Government’s proposed abolition of the Mining Tax)
- Campaigned to keep Qantas Australian-owned and opposed the payment of any subsidies to the airline
- Campaigned against the introduction into Parliament by the federal government of anti-democratic criminal related legislation,
- Opposed the generous pay rises granted to Queensland politicians as an insult to the people they are meant to be serving