Clive Palmer, Bruce McIver brought us down: Campbell Newman

• THE AUSTRALIAN
• DECEMBER 5, 2015 12:00AM

• Hedley Thomas

Campbell Newman. Picture: Jamie Hanson

There have been public bouts of deep recrimination and self-analysis. A tough book co-authored by beaten premier Campbell Newman. Even a political post-mortem report, overseen by the Liberal National Party’s then Queensland president, Bruce McIver.

All have purported to provide insights into why Newman’s hard-charging Queensland government went from the greatest electoral majority in the state’s history — with 78 out of 89 seats on taking power in 2012 — to humiliation and a massive loss to Labor three years later.

In most analysis until now, one problem has been overlooked or airbrushed: the extraordinary internal conflicts and corrosive impacts arising from McIver’s commercial relationship with Clive Palmer, one of the great backers, then wreckers, of the parliamentary wing.

Now, in extraordinarily frank comments, Newman has named that relationship as one of the drivers of his downfall: “Our issues were clearly (made worse) by the relationship between the president and Clive at the time.”

As Palmer’s commercial and political interests edged closer to implosion this week, with his lawyers warning of a financial “drop-dead date” due to his businesses being out of cash, Newman, along with former deputy premier Jeff Seeney, current deputy leader John-Paul Langbroek and other party figures, have revealed some answers to questions at the heart of the government’s failure.

Could McIver properly serve the LNP while simultaneously serving the party’s backer-cum-relentless attacker, Palmer, as a generously remunerated director of five of the tycoon’s Singapore-registered companies, as part of Asia Pacific Shipping Enterprises PTE Ltd? Did their personal and commercial ties fuel Palmer’s unrealistic expectations and, in turn, ratchet up demands he made of Newman and Seeney, both of whom were powerfully lobbied to favour the major donor’s proposed coal project in central Queensland?

Newman said: “I say with great regret, not anger, that Clive caused us so much damage, but Bruce didn’t get that. I have always been privately very disappointed that Bruce didn’t see it was a major conflict of interest for him from the beginning to be the leader of the LNP — the president of the party — as well as a director of some of Clive’s companies, all at the same time Clive was a big donor who then became one of our most outspoken critics.

“The president was on Clive’s payroll at a time when Clive was fighting the party. People were concerned and angry about it. We had meetings in the partyroom where we were asking ‘what the hell are we going to do about this?’, because Clive was throwing rocks at us publicly. Here was a guy trying to take down the new government in 2012.

“I have always been totally nonplussed that Bruce McIver could have wanted to have such a situation continue. I have never understood why he remained on Clive’s payroll. I just don’t know why you would do that.

“There were many contributing factors to the fall of the government, including plenty of our own actions, but our issues were clearly (made worse) by the relationship between the president and Clive at the time.”

Party elders, including a former president and major donors, worked hard to counsel McIver and persuade him to sever his ties to Palmer, according to a senior source, “but Bruce wouldn’t hear of it — he kept going as a director”. In the meantime, according to Supreme Court legal documents, Palmer in April 2012 was demanding preferential treatment for a massive coalmining venture in the Galilee Basin.

He allegedly said, “I have paid a lot of money to get you guys elected and I have a lot more money to continue to do that in the future.”

Seeney, who rebuffed Palmer, is being sued along with Newman for defamation by the tycoon, who denies any wrongdoing. The Australian began investigating Palmer after reports of his expectations of the government began to leak.

By the time the McIver cord with Palmer was cut in 2013, huge damage had been done to the party, according to senior sources, and there was a palpable lack of trust between Newman and the party president and others.

“I know that (the then treasurer) Tim Nicholls, Jeff Seeney and (current Opposition Leader) Lawrence Springborg also saw it as highly inappropriate, but nobody could get the president to see otherwise,’’ Newman says.

“Clive believed that because he had been such a big supporter of the party, and because he had these relationships with the president, that would mean that when the LNP formed a government, Clive would have great influence over it. When he was rebuffed, he got very angry.”

The public record shows that after Seeney and Newman refused to give Palmer’s projects preferential treatment, he publicly sledged the premier and his deputy. It was a precursor to the formation of his Palmer United Party and his pledge to demolish Newman.

Singapore company documents show McIver continued as a director of Palmer’s commercial interests into 2013. Five companies were set up in 2012 to raise finance to buy and build ships to transport ore to and from Palmer’s loss-making Queensland Nickel refinery at Townsville. It is now on the brink of collapse.

The LNP’s code of ethics says office-bearers “should be mindful that their positions derive from the party and carry a responsibility to support the party’s welfare and structure by word and action” and “a member should not engage in any practice that corrupts the integrity of the party, its membership or the political process”.

McIver, who has served on the LNP executive since stepping down as president and remains in touch with Palmer, said people were “trying to rewrite history” about his role. Asked whether he put his business interests with Palmer ahead of the LNP, he said: “I would reject that totally — it makes me laugh. Clive could not get anything from me as party president because I was not in the government. I don’t think he even thought he could exert influence on the government through me.

“It was part of my job to try to manage Clive and it wasn’t easy. He was going to take us on in the courts. It would have been much worse if I had not had the relationship with him … I would stand up anywhere and say that I had the highest integrity in these matters.”

McIver said he did not believe Palmer “was even a contributing factor” to the government’s failure at the ballot box on January 31 this year, adding: “I saw the polling.”

Asked about his role as a director of Palmer-owned shipping entities, he said: “Those companies were offshore. They had nothing to do with Queensland. My role started in 2011, then we registered the companies in early 2012. I was chairman of the (company) board. I ran the show.”

Seeney, who continues in parliament as an opposition member, said yesterday: “The party hierarchy had a commercial benefit in me keeping Clive happy but it became increasingly impossible. Clive’s expectations were based on his relationship with Bruce as an individual and with the party as a major supporter.

“It was a major part of the demise of the government — much more so than has been publicly recognised — because it took a lot of energy out of us in the early days. It soured the relationships between the parliamentary wing and the organisation and it created a snowballing effect.”

According to Langbroek, who was deposed as leader to make way for Newman’s takeover from City Hall in 2011, McIver’s style and strength transformed the party and delivered it into government, “but I think he was compromised by his relationship with a wealthy man in Clive who wanted to buy the party”.

“Those in the parliamentary wing tried to do our jobs but there was an estrangement with the party,’’ Langbroek said.