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April 30th, 2012 
FAKE NEWS for the Zionist agenda - Image
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Run for parliament … Queensland mining magnate Clive Palmer / Pic: Cameron Richardson
Source: News Limited
Source: News Limited
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Clive Palmer and Wayne Swan have come out fighting after Palmer announced he would seek LNP preselection for Swan’s seat of Lilley at the next election.
Mining magnate Clive Palmer has announced he will run for pre-selection in Treasurer Wayne Swan’s seat
HE is worth more than three times Wayne Swan’s expected budget surplus – and now mining magnate Clive Palmer is hoping to bury the Treasurer at the next election.
Mr Palmer yesterday announced he would seek preselection for Mr Swan’s Brisbane seat of Lilley for the Liberal National Party.
The maverick billionaire’s political ambitions may scuttle rumoured plans Mr Swan had to retire at the next election.
The Treasurer broke from his budget preparations to stare down the challenge for his seat, declaring he would relish the chance to fight Mr Palmer, who this year revealed he believed the CIA and Greens were conspiring against Australian miners.
Mr Swan has a tenuous hold on his seat, with a margin of 3.2 per cent, and would be wiped out if Labor’s polls failed to improve.
Appearing in front of a “Swan’s song” banner, Mr Palmer said: “I intend to put to the test, to the people of this country, my views against the Treasurer in his home seat of Lilley. He has been the sitting member for far too long. It’s about time we get this country moving again.”
Within hours of Mr Palmer’s Brisbane announcement, Mr Swan launched into a campaign-style press conference at parliament house.
“I believe we live in a community, not a corporation. It is pretty much official today, the Liberal Party, particularly in my home state, is a wholly owned subsidiary of Mr Palmer,” he said.
Mr Swan accused his new political rival, who lives near the seat, of seeing Lilley only from the air when he flew into Brisbane on his private jet.
A spokesman for Mr Palmer was unaware if the billionaire planned to move to the electorate.
In the past eight years Mr Palmer, a lifetime member of the LNP, has donated $3.5 million to the Liberal Party and $130,000 to Labor.
The Queensland Nickel chairman renounced any ambition to be more than a backbencher if he made it into parliament and said he would be loyal to Opposition Leader Tony Abbott.
Mr Abbott was in Perth yesterday and said he was surprised by the magnate’s announcement. Mr Abbott said the LNP would select the right candidate through its normal preselection process.
“I was as surprised as everyone else at the announcement today,” he said.
“Clive Palmer, like millions of other Australians, is desperate to see a bad government gone but, like everyone else who wants to run for the LNP, I’m afraid he’s got to run the gauntlet of a very testing preselection process.”
An LNP spokeswoman said Mr Palmer had filled in an expression-of-interest form but had yet to formally nominate.
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