Clive Palmer is a man who tells it like it isn't Clive Palmer speaks to the press after declaring he had won the seat of Fairfax. SO-CALLED mining "billionaire" Clive Palmer is not just an embarrassment to our democracy but a danger. Voters who last month gave Palmer's new party potentially three senators - and a critical share of the balance of power - no doubt thought he was another tell-it-like-it-is maverick. In fact he's a man who too often tells it like it isn't and uses his money to take on critics with court action. Palmer, who's also certain to win the seat of Fairfax, is now in a strong position to use Parliament to help bail out his business, which seems under stress. Take his policy to not just repeal the carbon tax but make government refund emitters all they've had to pay. What a gift that would be for Palmer, who has been charged $6.2 million by the Clean Energy Regulator for refusing to pay the carbon tax owed by his private company, Queensland Nickel. Palmer could hypothetically also use his status as an MP to impress or intimidate business associates, not least Chinese group CITIC Pacific, which refuses to pay $500 million a year of iron ore royalties Palmer claims it owes his Mineralogy group. Palmer insists he just got into politics to help Australia and is being persecuted by papers like this, owned by Rupert Murdoch, whose estranged wife Palmer claims is a "Chinese spy." But in my view he's sinister, irrational and a self-serving bully who refuses to answer basic questions about the health of his businesses and his wealth, which in June he boasted was $6 billion. Take his typically bizarre press conference this week in which he berated reporter Chip Le Grand from The Australian, sued by Palmer over its acute scrutiny of his affairs. CLG: When you were here in the lead-up to the federal election, you were asked about your personal wealth and you put your wealth at $6 billion. CP: Well, that is not true. CLG: You have said you never said that, but there is a transcript and audio. CP: Well, there could be ... but on a political sense I would like to admit to you that I am a scoundrel, a terrible person, I shouldn't be in Parliament ... Nor would Palmer give a straight answer about Townsville nickel refinery, which he swore in an affidavit depended on the CITIC royalties. CLG: How long can you keep that refinery going without receiving those royalties? In fact, it is our business and not least because his party sold Palmer as a billionaire who could do for us what he'd done for himself, a man of "integrity and expertise that can lead us out of this economic crisis and create community wealth and jobs." And it is our business if this political leader turns out to tell porkies. It's even more our business given one of his new senators, Zhenya Wang, is managing director of Australasian Resources, which Palmer largely owns and has bailed out lately with cash injections totalling $421,000. How much vested interest does the Palmer party represent? And how long could it keep going if the money behind Palmer dries up? IN fact, Palmer's legal brawl with CITIC Pacific could take two years before he could even hope to see a cent of the royalties he says he's owed. His nickel refinery lost $58 million last financial year, according to an affidavit Palmer swore. Meanwhile, his Coolum Palmer Resort - now rethemed as a dinosaur park - has lost its premier event, the Australian PGA, and has had occupancy rates fall to disastrous lows. Palmer's real worth - and vested interests - might become clearer once he fills out the register of interests required of all members of Parliament, but we'll have to wait even for that. The Australian Electoral Commission ordered a recount in the seat of Fairfax after Palmer provisionally won by only seven votes, yet there's still no final result almost four weeks later. That's thanks largely to Palmer challenging an astonishing 44,000 votes, while claiming the electoral process is "corrupt" with "multiple people who have served in the military as officers" now working as AEC officials. It should shame us that such a conspiracist convinced so many Australians to give him their vote. It should particularly embarrass the ABC, which gave Palmer so many softball interviews (as a critic of Tony Abbott) that he regularly praises ABC host Tony Jones as "the best journalist in Australia." You see, when Palmer says he "shouldn't be in Parliament" not one of us should laugh.