Mining magnate takes aim at Labor's Bill Shorten

Labor Party leader Bill Shorten. Photo / AP

Mining magnate and party leader Clive Palmer has called Labor's Bill Shorten a "liar" and said he is not fit to lead the country as campaigning heats up for Australia's May 18 election.

Palmer, leader of the United Australia Party (UAP), made the claims against the Labor leader at an explosive press conference in Brisbane yesterday, during which he outlined alleged extensive discussions with the Labor Party over preferences. Under Australia's preferential voting system, voters rank their preferred candidates and the lowest ranked candidates fall out of the race until a candidate gains a majority.

If Palmer's claims are true, it contradicts repeated staunch denials from Shorten that he or any Labor officials made serious approaches to the UAP.

Palmer called Shorten a "liar" and said he lacks "the moral character to be prime minister".

He said UAP preferences would go to Prime Minister Scott Morrison's Liberal Party, the senior partner in the current coalition Government, but said Labor was just as keen for them.

Shorten and Labor frontbencher Anthony Albanese last week launched an attack on Morrison's arrangement with Palmer.

Shorten has been particularly critical of Morrison working so closely with someone who has not paid millions in owed entitlements to workers at his collapsed Queensland Nickel refinery.

But Palmer claimed he spoke to Labor senator Anthony Chisholm on several occasions in recent months.

He said the meetings followed a lunch in Brisbane this year with "a former Labor minister" who encouraged Palmer to meet Chisholm.

Palmer said he was open to negotiations with all parties until last week when Shorten began attacking UAP's discussions with the Liberal Party in the media.

"I realised Bill Shorten was lying to the Australian people," Palmer said. He added: "Shorten's repeated lies about preferences confirmed my judgment that he's not morally fit to be Prime Minister."

Chisholm responded by saying: "Most Australians know that Clive Palmer is chaotic and dishonest, and his recent press statement was another example of that."

Shorten said: "Why is it so hard for billionaires to pay taxpayers the money they owe? Why is it there's one rule for the rest of us and another rule for him and Scott Morrison?

"If you owed the Government A$10,000 [$10,570] for longer than a year, the tax office would give you a ring, wouldn't they? They might send you a letter, they'll chase you up.

"But apparently, in this country, if you owe A$70 million to the taxpayer, not only does the Government not worry about it, it wants your preferences. In fact, it wants to elect you to the Senate."

Palmer said yesterday he would be putting A$7 million into a trust fund for former employees of Queensland Nickel.