126 personal profile

The it crowd Palmer with his second wife Anna and former US president Bill Clinton The titan in New York in 2011. behind Titanic II A few years ago the name Clive Palmer would have drawn a blank look from most Australians. As Nigel Bowen discovers, Now the whole world is talking about the Queensland mining magnate who’s devoting an estimated half a billion dollars to building Titanic 2.0.

here’s something of the early 20th century escape the polluted air of Melbourne’s tycoon about Clive Palmer that makes him the Williamstown, George Palmer moved Tideal individual to rebuild a ship that launched his family up to Surfers Paradise, where and, notoriously, almost immediately sank a century ago. his once sickly child thrived, at least In an age of circumspect business leaders unwilling or athletically, becoming a champion runner unable to depart from a PR-approved script, Palmer and playing on the wing with Southport is an Antipodean throwback to the likes of Andrew Tigers rugby league club. Carnegie, Cornelius Vanderbilt or Henry Ford, the kind While Palmer recalls being “very poor of redoubtable captains of industry who dreamed big as a scholar” and found the school dreams, launched world-changing enterprises and curriculum “very boring”, he nonetheless fearlessly called it like they saw it. managed to get into the University of Like the ship he’s in the process of reincarnating, Queensland during the tumultuous it can be difficult disentangling historical fact from Whitlam era. According to the Palmer entertaining embellishment when it comes to Clive legend, he dropped out of law school Palmer, not least because the man himself is given to and got a job in order to be able to afford the odd colourful claim. Earlier this year, for example, to take a fellow student who’d caught he told the ABC’s Tony Jones he’d door-knocked four his eye (and was soon to become his million homes on behalf of the National Party since wife) out to dinner. After missing out on 1969, before later taking to Twitter to downgrade the an interview for a real estate agent job figure to 400,000 (which still works out as an impressive because, at 21, he was considered too one home an hour, every hour, for the last 43 years). young for the position, he rang back, Nonetheless, from the various accounts Palmer has pretended to be 31, got the job and given to the media over the years, his bio appears to earned about $300,000 in his first six go something this: baby Clive is born in Melbourne in months, making him the “top-selling 1954, to Nancy and George Palmer. Palmer senior was person in Australia”. a silent movie star of the 1920s who went on to set up By 29, having launched his own the first commercial radio stations in Australia and act as business, GSS Property Sales, during media adviser to Prime Minister Joe Lyons, but despite the Gold Coast property boom of the late this illustrious career his son recalls being brought up in 1970s and early 1980s, he had made his “relatively poor” circumstances. first 40 million dollars and retired to travel As a young child, Palmer suffered from life- the world with his wife. A couple of years threateningly bad asthma. At age seven or eight he had later, bored senseless, he went back into an attack so severe that his heart stopped beating and he business and began, among several other blacked out. He regained consciousness on an operating ventures, buying up iron ore deposits. table to find a doctor giving him a cardiac massage. As Around this time he also befriended his he told Australian Story earlier this year, “That was an boyhood hero, Sir Joh Bjelke-Petersen, interesting point in my life, because it made me realise and became a major donor to and we’ve got nothing to fear about life. We’ve only got death powerbroker within the National Party. that awaits all of us, so the most important thing about Despite his own conservatism, Palmer life is to use the time you’ve got and not to be intimidated has never had any issue dealing with and worried about who you are… when you go through communists. In 1962 he spent half a year a near-death experience you tend to value life… and the in China with his father and remembers opportunities you’ve got. I guess that refers to me even sitting on Chairman Mao’s knee. In the today [in] that I’m not frightened to say what I think.” mid 1980s, he headed to the Soviet Union Told his son would be dead within a year if he didn’t to flog iron ore to Mikhail Gorbachev and

oceanmagazine.com.au 128 personal profile courtesy scratch and has given plenty of it away, to weighing 40,000 tonnes and being just been inserted between D and C decks. the men and women who served in the political parties, charities and employees. under 270 metres long and 53 metres G deck has been redesigned to feature entertainment groups on the Titanic.” Given all this, Palmer’s presumably telling high. According to the Preliminary General crew accommodation, laundry, stores and When asked about his own armada of RMS T RMS the truth when he claims to be interested Arrangement Plan Palmer released on machinery and there’s also escape stairs, recreational craft, Palmer is vague in the in money not for its own sake but for July 17, Titanic II will be as long as its service elevators, air conditioning and fire way only those with lots of money but very what it allows him to do. And one of the itanic forebear, but 25,000 tonnes heavier and zones that weren’t on the 1912 version, little time to indulge their hobbies can things it’s now allowing him to do, as he 4.2 metres wider (its draft will also be but they’ve been made as unobtrusive as be. He first admits to having “a couple of , I ,

tells Ocean, is rebuild what must be, after nc smaller by three metres). Palmer, who possible. Just like the firstTitanic , there will boats” before later volunteering he has

Noah’s Ark, the most famous ship ever to ., employed the services of a historical be onboard gymnasiums, swimming pools, “a Horizon 100-footer, a 70-foot yacht a

set sail. subsidiary research team during the design process, libraries, fine-dining restaurants and luxury and about 10 other smaller boats that When asked about the genesis of Titanic says all the major changes for Titanic II (at least for some) cabins. Conditions are all different sizes.” Like his father, II, Palmer tells Ocean, “The Chinese are in – welding rather than riveting; a bulbous in first, second and third class will all Clive Palmer enjoys travelling on cruise the top 70 per cent for building container bow for greater fuel efficiency; an enlarged

vessels but in the bottom two per cent of rudder and bow thrusters for increased P

when it comes to providing passenger remier manoeuverability; and four-stroke medium- vessels, so they said to me, ‘How do we speed diesel generating sets manufactured

break into the market?’ and I said, ‘Let’s Ex by Wartsilä (two 4,400 kilowatt 12-cylinder

build the Titanic!’ It will be great, it will hibitions 12V46F and two 9,600 kilowatt 8L46F show off the competitiveness of Chinese engines) instead of steam engines and shipbuilders.’” coal-fired boilers – will be under the

Palmer’s suggestion must strike fear I , waterline. Two of the four funnels on the into the hearts of European shipbuilders, nc modern edition will be purely for show and . who’ve long accounted for 75 per cent house public viewing decks. of the luxury ship market while China, Above the waterline, Palmer promises, which presently lays claim to less than Titanic II will be a near identical replica, three per cent of it, has confined itself to with just a few concessions made to constructing utilitarian container vessels. modern safety regulations and the Palmer’s shipping company, Blue Star comfort of 21st century passengers TITANIC’s HEART Lines, has contracted Deltamarin, a and crew. Like the original, Titanic II will WILL GO ON Finnish-based ship design and marine have nine decks, complete with first, Right: Titanic’s engineering company, best known for second and third class, officer and crew grand staircase. Below: Anna and Oasis of the Seas, Celebrity Solstice accommodation. Reassuringly, a new Clive Palmer with and Celebrity Equinox, to oversee the safety deck with plenty of lifeboats has their daughter. project with the state-owned, CSC Jinling Shipyard, founded in Nanjing in 1952, reproduce what was provided back in the ships (he was on the QEII surrounded by responsible for building the vessel. more socially stratified Edwardian era. geriatrics doing an aerobics class when Questions have been raised as to whether Palmer’s determination to keep the he decided he really needed to come the Chinese have the experience and Titanic experience as historically authentic out of retirement and get back to work) skill set to pull off recreating the Titanic as possible seems to stem from his love though he only gets out on one of his own but Markku Kanerva, Deltamarin’s of James Cameron’s mega-grossing 1996 boats “four or five times a year” and has established a relationship with Russia’s capitalist. Given Palmer’s reported to be Director of Sales, has no doubt both his movie. Indeed, he tells Ocean that his never chartered a vessel. When asked governing class that endures to this day. worth somewhere between $5 to $8 billion firm and CSC Jinling Shipyard are up to interest in the story of the Titanic was about reports he bought his daughter a But it was a nation that, after a fashion, and owns lavish homes in Brisbane, recreating the opulence that made the piqued, “Ever since I saw the movie $5.3 million, 30-metre yacht in 2009 for maintained the Marxist faith that was to the Gold Coast, Perth and Beijing, three Titanic world-famous even before it met I’ve been having a good think about it. her 15th birthday he scoffs that the story propel Palmer from being simply seriously private jets, two helicopters, two golf its tragic fate. Kanerva says, “Deltamarin When I read up on it I was fascinated was “a bit of a beat-up, you know what wealthy to eye-wateringly rich. In the courses, a horse stud, a nickel smelter, a has been involved in the development by the opulence of the first-class section the media are like” and that he’d actually 1980s, long before most recognised five-star resort, more luxury boats than he of several comparable cruise ships and and the courage [passengers and crew purchased it for himself. Has he learnt the possibilities thrown up by China’s can keep track of (more on that shortly) cruise ferries, such as the development of demonstrated]. anything out on the water that’s been inevitable industrialisation, Palmer set and 160 billion tonnes of iron ore reserves the first Disney Cruise Line ships. We also “One hundred years have gone by and useful in business, I enquire? “Steady as about cultivating contacts in a country in the Pilbarra Ranges, it wasn’t difficult participated in the development of The the work they did 100 years ago is the she goes!” he laughs. where establishing strong business for senior Labor figures to paint Palmer as World, the world’s first apartment cruise work we’re reproducing and celebrating. I sense my allotment of Clive Palmer’s relationships can take many years. When a self-interested plutocrat. ship.” As for doubts about the supposedly The vessel is going to be the same, have exceedingly valuable time is drawing to a the China-fuelled mining boom took off, The truth is rather more complex. inexperienced Chinese, Kanerva notes, the same design work and interior, to give close so I pose the logical last questions. so did both Palmer’s privately owned Palmer’s life has not been without “Seventy to 80 per cent of a cruise ship everybody a chance to realise what it was Does he think he’s tempting fate by minerals company Mineralogy and his hardship. In 2006 his beloved wife of 22 is developed by turnkey subcontractors like back in 1912. Passengers will be rebuilding the Titanic, a ship that claimed public profile. years died of cancer, leaving him with and suppliers, so it is more a question of able to book a ticket for six days across the lives of 1,514 passengers and crew? Strange as it seems now, up until two young children to raise. (He later logistics, project management and the the Atlantic and have two days each in “No, because there have been plenty half a decade ago Palmer was relatively remarried the widow of a close friend, supplier network than the shipyard work. first, second and third class or they can of ships that have sunk that have had unknown outside of Australian political who had also died from cancer, and had And many of the European suppliers just book for one class. Third class will other ships built [to the same design] and business circles. It was not until he a third child). Like Forrest, he has a long- already have their material purchase or be exactly like it was: you’ll be sharing after them.” got into a stoush, which rages to this day, standing interest in tackling Indigenous production in China.” a bathroom, having Irish stew, dancing So you’ll be one of the 1680 passengers with the federal government over the disadvantage and is somewhere to the left It’s no simple task building a ship around the drum.” on the maiden voyage, travelling from divvying up of natural resources profits of the Greens when it comes to welcoming to century-old designs but Palmer is If that’s the case, surely Palmer has London to New York in 2016? that he started making the front page asylum-seeking boatpeople. He’s also determined that modern-day passengers hired Celine Dion to belt out My Heart Will “I hope so.” regularly. Along with fellow mining moguls a big supporter of the Salvation Army, should undertake a journey that mirrors Go On on the maiden voyage? “Certainly, And then, with an abrupt, “All the best, Gina Rinehart and Andrew Forrest, Palmer an organisation he worked for while at that of the original Titanic’s passengers as everyone’s heart will go on with Titanic mate, see ya,” Clive Palmer hangs up. MAIDEN VOYAGE was caricatured, particularly by Treasurer university. Unlike many of his rich list Titanic at dock before closely as possible. When it was built, the II. We’ve been giving some thought to He’s a very busy man, with a very big boat Wayne Swan, as the archetypal greedy colleagues, Palmer built his fortune from she met her destiny. Titanic was the largest liner in the world, having a string quartet as a tribute to to get built.

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