Clive Palmer says criticism of him and PUP senators is part of a "ruthless" campaign against the party. Credit:Jacky Ghossein “You have to remember the Senate is made up of about 70 senators but all you ever hear about is me and Jacqui Lambie or somebody because the powers that be are upset that they haven’t got control of the Senate and we have the balance of power. “So they are trying to throw as much rubbish as they can on us, to affect us, so we will do what they want to do and we have basically stood very firmly against the budget, said it is an unfair budget and it hurts a lot of people and there are certain things we won’t allow to happen. “The conservative side of politics is very ruthless and it will do anything it can to discredit people and to attack them and that is what it is about.” Sounding tired, Mr Palmer said his party could not support budget measures such as the $7 GP co-payment because he did not believe he “got elected to do that to people”.

“Our position is quite clear that we shouldn’t be hurting the people who can least afford it in society and that is what is wrong with the budget,” he said. “Everywhere it takes money from the poor and from disadvantaged people. And I mean, one of the problems the government is trying to address is that the fact that they’ve got about a 300 per cent [increase] in visits to the doctors in the last 10 years per capita. “Now that could be because the doctors say come back so they can fill up their sheet. It may not be from the consumer at all. We need to look at the medical profession and see what their practices are. They may just be filling their sheets to get more revenue. But we can’t attack people’s right to have access to health, the people who can least afford it.” Mr Palmer reiterated that he was talking about the state-owned Chinese company Citic Pacific when he made the “mongrel” and “bastards” comments on Monday’s Q&A program, rather than the Chinese people themselves. But he said Australia needed to remain “vigilant”.

“I mean we have to hail the Chinese people for all their achievements, what they have done, but we do have to recognise that they do live under a totalitarian regime and there has been little change with the Communist party in China since the early 1960s until now - well only the economy has changed,” he said. “There are still people who have been persecuted and [there is] a lack of human rights, so I guess you have got to be ever vigilant when it comes to your defence and what you are doing as a country. Loading “But more importantly what I was referring to was the fact that we have state owned companies owned by the government of China that come out here and try to get control of our assets and try to take control of our resources and our ports. “I think that is against our national interest.”