Conspiracy to Destroy Australia's Coal Industry: Clive Palmer Draws Criticisms fo such Claims
Government officials blasted at Queensland billionaire Clive Palmer for accusing specific groups of plotting to destroy the Australian economy.
Leading the onslaught of attacks were the Australian Green Party, which Palmer said was conniving with the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) to intentionally destroy Australia's coal mining industry, one of the world's biggest, and prop up that of America's.
The whole scenario also involves funding from the Rockefeller Foundation and the active participation of international environmental activist Greenpeace, the mining mogul claimed.
However, Greens leader Bob Brown called Palmer's statements as 'wacky and defamatory' while his Greens colleague, Senator Richard Di Natale, suggested that the mining boss has become a 'crackpot'.
Di Natale told the Australian Associated Press (AAP) he was saddened that Palmer's crazy ideas were being entertained in the mainstream media.
Another Greens legislator, MP Adam Bandt, has insisted that the theories peddled by Palmer were nothing short of lunacy, lamenting too that "it just goes to show you don't have to be smart to be rich."
Palmer, however, clarified that he was not specifically referring to the national leadership of the Australian Greens but on the agenda seemingly espoused by the party's affiliates in Queensland.
"Clearly there are foreign interests involved. I've got no evidence to prove it's the CIA but the report has been produced by overseas sources and it shows funding coming from the Rockefeller Foundation," the miner was reported by The Australian as saying on Wednesday.
But Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan described the billionaire's actions as both erratic and bizarre while at the same time betraying his too comfortable association with the Liberal National Party.
Swan told ABC that Palmer's role as one of the biggest financier behind the Liberals was public knowledge, thereby creating the impression that the mining boss was "pulling the strings in the Liberal Party."
Also, Foreign Minister Bob Carr expressed concerns that the conspiracy theory floated by Palmer could hurt the image of Australia as a solid investment destination.
"It could create the impression that we are a risky place to do business when you've got a businessman so close to (Opposition Leader) Tony Abbott talking about a CIA plot to wreck the Australian economy," Carr told The Australian.
Abbott, however, is convinced that Palmer's claims make sense, affirming, in an interview with Ten Network, that indeed the Greens were bent hard to halt the coal mining activities in Australia.
He added though that the Greens do not require the assistance of the CIA in order to push forward with its agenda.
The claims were just delivered oddly, the Liberal leader said, and were not even unusual coming from a man like Palmer, who Abbott described as "a larger than life character."