Clive Palmer brushes off fat jokes

  • Breaking
  • 28/11/2014

By Melissa Jenkins

Sticks and stones may break his bones but fat jokes will never hurt him.

Clive Palmer will reveal on the ABC's Kitchen Cabinet on Tuesday he doesn't sweat over jibes about his weight.

The head of the Palmer United Party will also confirm he brought his own computers into federal parliament because he thinks ASIO is spying on him and he got into politics because he didn't want to disappoint his wife, Anna.

Palmer says fat jokes don't bother him and says he doesn't see the cartoons exaggerating his size because he doesn't read the newspapers - his staff do that for him.

"I know a lot of people that are fat that have got great integrity and are people that we can all love and have compassion for," he says.

"I wasn't always fat.

"I don't read the papers at all.

"I'm pretty bullet proof when it comes to people ... saying Clive's a bad guy - well, gee whiz."

On his future in politics, Palmer tells interviewer Annabel Crabb he owes it to his constituents to remain in parliament.

Palmer stays put for the entire episode, with Crabb pointing out that he has a habit of storming out on ABC interviews.

The colourful politician and businessman walked out of a Lateline interview earlier this month when host Emma Alberici quizzed him on his deteriorating relationship with now former party colleague Jacqui Lambie and his legal battle with the Chinese government.

He also pulled the pin on an interview with 7.30's fill in host, award winning journalist Sarah Ferguson, in July.

More on Clive from his lunch date with the ABC:

HIS DAD

He was a filmmaker and made a feature length movie when he was just 17-years-old.

"He was the youngest movie producer in the world in Hollywood in 1927," Palmer says.

RETIRING IN HIS 20s

Palmer retired aged 29 after making a fortune in real estate and then did nothing for two years.

"All my friends from school had a mortgage so they couldn't do much with me so I went on a trip on the QE2," he says.

"I was sitting there and I looked around and all the people there with me were in their 70s or 80s so I thought 'well maybe this is not for me, maybe I better get back into the real world' and then I went back into business."

HIS HOUSES

He has residences in New York, Beijing, Brisbane, Perth and the Gold Coast.

POLITICS

Palmer says there are lots of convenient relationships in politics but there are few people you can really count on in life.

"You're lucky if you can rely on four or five people in your life," he says.

"I find the most important thing is having someone that loves you, having a good meal every day and you know you've got their support.

"Beyond that, everything is an illusion."

He says business is governed by facts and reality whereas political negotiations are driven by perception, greed and outside influences.

AFP

source: newshub archive