Breaking news : Titanic (2) Sinks !

Alas, along with his political career hitting rock bottom it looks like billionaire Clive Palmer's ambitious project to recreate the Titanic has also sunk. Palmer's Blue Star Line's twitter page hasn't updated for ages and now this video has appeared on YouTube

So shoot us..the ship sails

Whispers has been on holiday and had to forgo the pleasure of keeping our loyal readers (so many in the USA & Russia) up to date.

Well it has been a long extended Silly Season so I doubt much was missed.

Even better: we picked up an amazing story while sunning ourselves in The Bahamas while staying with pals who were family friends of the legendary Sir Harry Oakes ( left ) who created the famous and exclusive Paradise Island resort there. COMING SOON !

However we have noticed that adverts for wacky Clive Palmer's United Australia Party are beginning to flood the airwaves as multi-millionaire Clive resurrects his political career.
But what of that other venture-  rebuild of the fated Titanic which sunk on the 15 April 1912 on it's maiden voyage with the loss of over 1500 lives.

Word reaches us via a Palmer operative that the project which was suspended in 2015 due to financial problems with Palmer's main company Mineralogy was in dispute with Chinese government-owned Citic over the payment of hundreds of millions of dollars in royalties to Palmer companies.
The Australian Supreme Court in 2017 found for Mineralogy, awarding it $US150 million, at the time worth about $196 million, in unpaid royalties.
Apparently the funds have now been paid which is why Clive is cashed up, going back into polticis and has relaunched the Titanic 2 project with the following video.

Has Clive's Titanic 2 sunk already?

Desperate business news for billionaire millionaire politcian Clive Palmer as his business interests hit the wall. Clive's Queensland nickel mines have just gone into voluntary administration as of Monday with the loss of 237 jobs after the Queensland government refused to bail out the ailing mines on the claim Palmer refused to allow them to inspect the books with a fine tooth comb.
In 2010 we reported how Clive startled guests at his lavish Christmas bash as he handed out keys to a brand new Mercedes to 55 of his 700 employees. And the largesse continued with Clive giving Fijian holidays to the rest along with stays at the Sheraton Mirage resort.
Palmer is now embroiled in a tussle with residents at his Coolum Resort as reported in the local Sunshine Coast Daily. And as if like a foreboding portent of more dramas at the resort Clive's favorite dinosaur Jeff (pictured ) went up in smoke early last year.
But what of Palmer's ambitious plans to recreate the Titanic with his announcement in 2012 he planed to rebuild the hapless ship and as we reported, OAPs (pensioners) would be banned from the boat seeing it would be sailing in international waters.
Whisper's Chinese spy disguised as a credible Shi Pei Pu (look her up) has been hovering around the Jinling  Shipyard in Jangling asking pertinent questions about the construction of Titanic 2 but alas, she received just blank looks.
The notion of recreating the most famous wreck in history was not only ambitious and romantic but reeked of a fabulous publicity stunt that was bound to end in tears. Will Clive's political career survive?
Below is the promo video of tests in Hamburg of a model of Titanic 2 cleverly disguised as an old Thames barge.

Birthday News

Did anyone know that former Treasurer and Deputy PM Wayne Swann was an old rocker at heart?.
We knew he was a surfer in his young days living in sunny Queensland and still regularly hits the waves with his board and wetsuit but we have pleasure in outing the backbencher as a card carrying & bandanna wearing Bruce Springsteen fan.
Yesterday Wayne celebrated his 60th and as our exclusive snap shows  good pal and former Prime Minister Julia Gillard dropped by to celebrate and bop away to Wayne's surprise gift from friends, a concert by The Springsteen Experience.

We think bandanna wearing should be encouraged to loosen up the House of Reps and have forwarded a communique to our pal Speaker Bronwyn Bishop MP. Failing that we may lobby Clive Palmer MP . He should be up for it.

Below is a video of The Springsteen Experience in action. Gosh, aren't they good!

( although we think a few drinks beforehand may help aid that experience)

Clive Palmer's Inspiration

He's building a replica of the Titanic which is due to sail from Southampton on it's maiden voyage in 2016 and ordered 100 mechanical dinosaurs for his Palmer Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast but of course, we all know him more recently as a candidate for Prime Minister who has launched his own political party.
Our favourite wacky billionaire Clive Palmer appeared on morning radio yesterday claiming to channel Miley Cyrus but the Shuttle reckons the real inspiration for Clive's antics is former Russian president Boris Yeltsin. Watch the 2 videos and see if we lie !

Capt. Wacky of Titanic 2

Our favorite billionaires Clive Palmer has launched his political campaign to take power In September and become Supreme Ruler Of Australia.
Speaking at a policy launch on the weekend Clive had some harsh words about our Welsh born Prime Minister Julia Gillard and the London born Leader of The Opposition Tony Abbott:
“You wonder how two people, both born outside Australia, in foreign countries, can relate to the people that live in this country,”“They don’t think about what it means to live in this country, to live and to die, and to stand for what it means to be Australian.”
Well there goes around one quarter of the countries votes with now nearly 6 million Aussies born abroad and another 3 million having at least one parent born elsewhere.
Palmer was speaking at the weekend launch of his campaign jet pictured above. 

 Alas, the Shuttle's intrepid sub editor Mildred Pierce donned her Amelia Earhart Memorial Flying Helmet and has uncovered Clive's patriotic fervor is not all it seems : the Bombarder jet dubbed Clive 1 is registered in a tax haven, the Isle Of Man.
Meanwhile those planning a joyous voyage on Clive's Titanic 2 can now view an interactive model of the ship and choose their cabin. Take note : it looks like there are the same number of lifeboats as the original!

Titanic 2 Sails Without Us

Those crafty Chinese are already re-producing humble Toyota Corollas, Bentleys and Rolls Royce's so why not a new Titanic on behalf of wacky billionaire Clive Palmer.

Palmer's new Blue Star Line has released photos of his new tub and it all looks a bit austere. The good news is that moaning pensioners (us by the time the ship sails ) will be banned from the boat.
A promotional lunch on the Archille Lauro did the Shuttle's seafaring head in. It sank in 1994 shortly after we recovered from food poisoning.

Bon Voyage !!

No Oldies For Capt Clive !

Wacky billionaire Clive Palmer said today pensioners would be banned from his replica Titanic 2 when it sets sail. Palmer has teamed up with a Chinese corporation to build the boat and take to the high seas with a floating casino on which only 'people like us' will be allowed onboard to gamble.

Clive is reported as saying :""We'll be in international waters, so we can probably stop pensioners from coming without breaching any legislation,
"There will be some sort of screening to make sure the people who do go there are people who can afford to go there."I think third class we'd have to have questions about, wouldn't we?"

So that means any ship-board romances between first class  and third class ala Jack Dawson & Rose is out and by the time Titanic 2 is launched hopefully the Shuttle will be a pensioner and be barred from the tub.

Look Who We Trust!

 Some surprising results from a Readers Digest survey on who Australians find as the most 'trustworthy' souls in the land.

 

Dick Smith

Coming in at Number One is Dr. Charlie Teo (left), the handsome and talented, sometime controversial neurosurgeon. He's followed by the burns specialist Dr Fiona Wood but the next three are pure (sort of) show biz: Hugh Jackman, Mary Donaldson, Crown Princess of Denmark (not bad for a former real estate agent) and entrepreneur Dick Smith.

Father Riley & Eric Bana

Next is the Shuttle's favourite selfless charity worker Father Chris Riley who runs YOTS and at 44 is our equal favourite Catholic priest Father Bob McGuire who was just forcibly retired by the Church but carries on his tasks feeding the homeless and such in Melbourne regardless.

Down the list at 74 is the most trustworthy politician, former PM Kevin Rudd with former Opposition leader Malcolm Turnbull at 76.  Both are way ahead of Tony Abbott and Julia Gillard.

Shane & Kyle

Actors like Deborah Lee Furness, Cate Blanchet and Michael Caton are considered very trustworthy as is the Singing Budgie aka Kylie Minogue at No 30 but who comes in last? : At 99 is Kyle Sandilands behind Rupert Murdoch (surely American?) at 97 and Shane Warne at 74. Wacky mining magnate Clive Palmer who is building a replica Titanic in China is No 92.

And more popular than any business mogul or politician? Why The Wiggles of course at 15!

                                        ******************************

Current Ecuador Embassy resident Julian Assange, listed as Editor-In-Chief of Wikileaks is regarded as the 75th Most trusted Australian. Here is Julian recently interviewing Noam Chomsky and writer Tariq Ali :

Capt.Clive of The Titanic 11

Just when politics was getting boring with the 'scandals' surrounding Speaker Peter Slipper allegedly sexually harassing a male staffer and Labor's Craig Thompson resigning over endless claims a union credit card was used at the Sydney bordello A Touch Of Class having gone off the boil.

Now, comes news that our favourite mining billionaire the portly Clive Palmer has set up a new shipping company called Blue Star Line and the announcement that he has commissioned a Chinese shipping company to build a replica Titanic for his tourism company and that he will stand at the next Federal election for the seat of Treasurer Wayne Swann.

Palmer worth a reputed $4B was the mastermind of a campaign in 2009 to scupper then PM Kevin Rudd's plans for a mining tax that would raise a billion dollars a year. Along with fellow mining magnates Gina Rinehart and Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, Palmer held a rally in a Perth park claiming the tax would be the ruin of us all. After his success in watering down the tax he celebrated by buying 55 favored employees each a new Mercedes SUV  for Christmas.

Palmer says the Titanic 11 will be 'unsinkable' and that "you don't have to be too clever to be a politician"!. Quite.

Kylie's a Living Treasure

The National Trust has just announced 7 new Living Treasures in association with that esteemed organ of repute Woman's Day and although some are predictable, others may surprise.

Dr Karl Kruzelnicki

No list would be complete without Kylie Minogue who wowed them at the Sydney Mardi Gras last night and has been elevated to almost Sainthood status in the UK. Olivia Newton John is one along with racing driver Jack Brabham, Dr Karl Kruszelnicki the scientist and ABC broadcaster (his wife makes those lurid shirts he is fond of), conservationist Dr Harry Butler, cancer expert and pioneer Professor Ian Frazier and mining billionaire Clive Palmer.

Clive Palmer?. Just days ago Federal Treasurer Wayne Swan was warning us against the dogged pursuit of power and wealth by the handful of mining magnates Clive Palmer, Gina Rinehart (on her way to become the world's richest person) and Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest. 

treasures: Clive Palmer

Swan called them a 'danger' to democracy with their capacity to affect government policy as they did in 2010 by funding a multi-million dollar advertising campaign to derail the new mining tax. Clive and the other two billionaires said it would break them although Twiggy Forrest confessed he hadn't actually hadn't got around to paying tax yet but "soon would". The campaign successfully dispatched PM Kevin Rudd's career to history and just to show there were no hard feelings, Palmer splashed out and gave 55 treasured employees a brand new Mercedes each for Christmas that year.!

Palmer's latest campaign is to destroy the Football Federation (run by Australia's second richest person, Westfield owner Frank Lowy) with his new soccer association. A real treasure!

Taxpayers To The Rescue

Mid 2010 and West Australia mine owner Gina Rinehart is clambering aboard a pick-up truck in a park in the ritzy Perth suburb Subiaco. Gina was there to protest the new mining tax being proposed by then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd.

Gina

"We'll all be rooned" was the basic theme as mining magnate after magnate mounted the tray of the pick-up to proclaim the evil tax on Australia's mineral wealth would be the end of life as we know it.

Fast forward a year and we are pleased to announce Gina Rinehart has weathered the socialist storm and today has been declared Australia's richest citizen with a fortune estimated at $10.3 billion.

In the BRW magazine Rich List released today Gina's pal who joined her that fateful day in Subiaco Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest is calculated to have a $6.18 billion bank account, a jump of $4.24 billion from the day Rudd unfairly proposed these upright citizens should contribute more to the general economy.

The rotund Clive Palmer who bankrolled a million dollar advertising campaign against the mining tax has seen his wealth jumped to $5.5 billion, trousering an extra $3.92 billion in just one year.

The Rudd government famously crashed and burned following the mining tax debacle (with just a little nudge from News Ltd) but just to show there were no hard feelings over the mining tax Palmer announced a bumper profit at the end of 2010 and treated 55 favoured employees to a brand new Mercedes saloon each for Christmas.

Who said Australia wasn't still  the Lucky Country ?

Marc & Elaine Rich (c) time.com

Romping in second on the Rich List is the reclusive financier Ivan Glasenberg with a lazy $8.8 Billion to his name.  Glasenberg runs the world's largest commodities trader Glencore.

For those with short memories Glencoe was the corporation run by Marc Rich who went on the lam with the FBI on his trail over some racketeering charges. The Shuttle once attended a party given by Rich's wife Elaine in a grand New York penthouse duplex apartment that covered the entire 2 top floors of a skyscraper overlooking Central park.

The bash was for Milton Berle's 90th birthday. The Shuttle chatted to another guest at the party, Joyce Wildenstein the woman famous for having so much plastic surgery. She was standing next to a man grinding an organ that had a monkey on a chain attached. The colours Joyce was wearing matched those of the monkey's outfit. It was a strange party.

If Elaine Rich was worried about her husband being a fugitive she didn't show it and was a gracious hostess. In 2001 and on his last day in office Bill Clinton gave Rich a presidential pardon.

In 2004 a CIA report stated that Glencoe had avoided UN sanctions and paid Saddam Hussein $US3.2 million in illegal kickbacks for oil from the Iraqi regime.

Nice work if you can get it.

Some Christmas Cheer from Alan Rusbridger & Rupert Murdoch

On the 1st November Rupert Murdoch gave a speech in Sydney praising his personal baby The Australian newspaper. Rupert is famous for saying he never interferes with his editors. Perhaps they just think like him.

Murdoch also promised that in a few years .. "it will be possible to have all the energy we want from economic cheap nuclear plants..it will be safe..there will not be an energy waste problem..we don't have to rush into a lot of mad schemes fouling up the country..windmills and other crackpot ideas.. "

That came as a shock to the  landed gentry of Rupert's beloved Liberal National Party coalition who have accepted $100,000 a time to allow an energy corporation to install windmills on their land.

.."just don't let the bloody Greens mess it up.." he continued.

The Greens hold nine Senate seats and the balance of power and look like picking up seats in the Victorian state election. Getting anything past them in Parliament will be a Herculean task.

The Australian promised in an ill-advised editorial after the August General Election to "destroy the Greens" The newspaper has been back pedalling ever since.



Alan Rusbridger



Fast forward to Friday night's 702 ABC  Sydney Radio Andrew Olle Lecture  given by Alan Rusbridger, editor of the UK Guardian newspaper. Speaking about the media he said :

"And, of course, most topically, there is the prospect of a merger between a wholly owned BSkyB and the four newspaper titles owned by News Corp. That would give one company control of nearly 40 per cent of Britain‟s press as well as a broadcaster with nearly £6bn in revenues compared with the £3.5bn licence fee of the BBC.

Now, I realize that even raising this question immediately translates, in the minds of some, into an argument about Rupert Murdoch. It‟s not. There‟s no one I would want to have that much power."

In his speech Rupert Murdoch said the profits from the current resources boom should be spent on education. How that could be achieved, he didn't say.

In May this year The Australian was at the forefront of a determined campaign to undermine then Prime Minister Kevin Rudd who had announced a 40% mining tax on the minerals dug out of land owned by the Australian people and which has driven the extraordinary wealth of the country. He hoped to raise $12 Billion in just 2 years.

The entire News Corp mast heads went into bat for the 3 mining billionaires leading the charge-Andrew 'Twiggy 'Forest. Gina Rinehart and Clive Palmer. The 3 funded a multi million dollar ad campaign which News Ltd apparently mistook for news and fact.

The mining tax spelt the end of civilisation as we know it...Forrest, Rinehart and Palmer proclaimed the new  tax would destroy the industry, lead to massive job losses and anyway, they were struggling already as it was.

The ruling Labor Party capitulated. It was the end of Rudd's leadership and he was swiftly replaced by Julia Gillard who limped home in the August election.



Clive Palmer



Just to show there are no hard feelings Clive Palmer, a National Liberal Party supporter threw a $20M bash last Thursday in Townsville for 2000 employees to celebrate the $200M personal profit he had made from just one mine.



Clive's a generous man to those who please him. At the party he announced 55 employees would each be receiving a brand new $50,000 Mercedes-Benz B180 each. Palmer toasted the post-GFC recovery as being responsible for his good fortune.

That's the recovery that Rupert Murdoch said in his speech was "governments wasting billions of dollars " for which Kevin Rudd received world-wide praise for keeping Australia out of recession but whose actions were roundly condemned by the Liberal National Party, but supported by those "bloody Greens"!

Complicated isn't it ?.

Join the Billionaire's Club!

Dress to Oppress ! Twiggy Forrest

It was a sight to warm the hearts of Capitalists everywhere-Australia's richest woman Gina Rinehart demonstrating against the proposed mining tax that will be increased to 40% on future profits.

 Never have the well heeled  battlers come out in force and together for such a common cause. Billionaire's and the nation's 3 richest people-Andrew 'Twiggy' Forrest, the corpulent Clive Palmer and our Gina, daughter of the late billionaire Lang Hancock who married his Filipino nurse Rose-in twin set and pearls shouting herself hoarse on the back of a flat bed truck on the well manicured lawns of Perth's Langley Park, screeching about PM Kevin Rudd's proposed tax that will kick in 2012 and replace a royalty system currently paid.

No Tax Gina Rinehart

Gina's ex-step mum Rose

 'Twiggy' Forrest is one our favourites-hovering between the richest and second richest man in the country depending on share price and always pictured at these events in a worker's orange flouro jacket and miner's helmet-sparkling clean-before clambering into his chauffeured Beemer and speeding off to the boardroom.

The idea of this tax is the more the mining corporations make-most with their headquarters based in Geneva or the Cayman Islands, the more the government will make on minerals dug out of the ground  and the more the government will raise in taxes on a finite resource that will run out one day. 

Whilst China booms so do we and with building programs there that will see Aussie mineral deposits that have kept the country afloat for 2 decades , sought after for years to come , the government reckons the common people should be getting a bigger share of what basically belongs to the nation. The billionaires aren't having any of that nonsense and reckon the Mandarin speaking Rudd is on the way to become a full blown Communist (while China is well on the way to becoming a capitalist giant). 

Clive Palmer

Of course mining actually does little to improve the country. No infrastructure is built-just bloody great holes in the ground from which the precious minerals are extracted and then these mining giants  just move on

Someone has badly planned this PR cock-up. The miner's union wouldn't have a bar of it so it was left to the bosses to pitch in a few hundred million dollars for a TV advert campaign. But having a handful of mining corporation bosses-with US , British and European accents weeping over lost billions in profits was always going to end in tears and having one corporation which wasn't stock market listed (hence it's share price wouldn't be affected) announce it was upping stakes and moving out only to discover it was actually expanding it's drilling operations soon backfired.

Not only will these corporations  be able to deduct all investment in their mineral searches , they will only pay tax on super profits at 40% which is reckoned by the Treasury to raise an extra $9Billion a year.

As a flushed Gina led a chorus of mine managers (on about $250K a year) in a rousing chant of-

"Axe the tax..axe the tax"..she paused for a minute and shouted "what do want for Australia again?"...one impertinent sod shouted "the Wallabies  to win on Saturday !".( the rugby team  are playing the English team at Subiaco oval in Perth).

The Shuttle has forwarded Gina, Clive and Twiggy's and names to be entered in the Roll of Honour at the prestige USA organisation Billionaire's For Wealthcare who regularly turn up in limos at anti-Barack Obama parades against socialised health care.

Motto : Appearances Are Everything-Dress to Impress and Oppress !