We don’t need another party for billionaires

April 28, 2013
Issue 
We wish Clive Palmer would 'go off and stay in Monaco, have a nice drink and forget about this country'.

Does Australia really need another party for the billionaires? Aren't the Liberal and Labor parties enough? Surely both have proved that they are loyal servants of the rich?

But when a billionaire mining tycoon like Clive Palmer sets his mind on becoming prime minister, he just goes out and buys himself his own instant party, the "United Australia Party", which he announced will contest 127 House of Representative seats and all Senate seats in the coming federal election.

This is how the rich think. When they see something they want, they think they can just go out and buy it — as WA billionaire mining heiress and richest Australian Gina Rinehart has tried to buy herself the Fairfax media empire to better broadcast her extreme right-wing politics.

After all, money is king in their universe and these billionaires have grown accustomed to getting whatever they want.

Palmer, whose previous pet project was to build a replica of the Titanic (perhaps that could be his party's logo) said when announcing the UAP: "I could go off and stay in Monaco, have a nice drink and forget about this country" but it was "time for Australia to claim back itself".

No thanks. The world would be a much better place if all 1426 billionaires in the world were packed off to Monaco, put on a liveable pension while their US$5.4 trillion of ill-gotten capital was put to better use addressing urgent social and environmental needs.

The world is twisted enough by the billionaires and their loyal political servants and it doesn't need yet another party for billionaires. If you agree with Green Left Weekly in our pursuit of a world for the billions not the billionaires, then please make a contribution to our Fighting Fund.

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