Times are seemingly tough for mining billionaire Clive Palmer, who has revealed he is looking forward to reaping a profit from his national Freedom Conference tour starring right-wing journalist Tucker Carlson.
In a 40-minute press conference on Monday, the former federal politician said Carlson, a former Fox News commentator who continues to argue the 2020 US presidential election was rigged, will not be paid for the series of interviews.
Mr Palmer said he was looking forward to receiving the profits from the tour’s tickets, which start at $200 a head, because he was “needing the money”.
“I’m a poor Australian, you know, I can’t cope,” Mr Palmer said.
“Business is bad in Australia this year, isn’t that right?”
That was before the man who is building a life-sized replica of the Titanic said he thought the series, which kicks off in June, was about free speech and that it “will be a non-profit operation, but I think many profits (will be) made out of it”.
“Freedom of choice or difference of opinion is what we’re really talking about,” he said.
The question of whether or not the conference is designed to make money may be up in the air but it is sure to create a publicity stir.
Alongside Carlson, the conference will include American right-wing political commentator and conspiracy theorist Dinesh D’Souza and Melissa McCann, an Australian COVID-19 sceptic.
But Carlson is undoubtedly the star of the show given his massive profile in the United States where he has even been touted as a possible running mate for former president Donald Trump.
Carlson now runs his own media outlet and broadcasts on X, formerly known as Twitter.
While he recently became the first western journalist to interview Russian president Vladimir Putin since the Ukraine war started, he was also roundly criticised for his soft line of questioning.
Mr Palmer will host the series as the lead interviewer, saying he intended to hold Carlson to account on a number of issues.
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However, he did not elaborate on what he believed those issues would be.
“I’ll be challenging. I’ll have to come up with some hard questions for him,'” he said.
“I’ll be a lot harder on Tucker Carlson than he was on Vladimir Putin, I promise you that.”
Mr Palmer said he had a busy year coming up with the construction of Titanic II, after re-announcing the idea in March.
The mining tycoon first spruiked the idea of a Titanic II in 2012 and said he expected to soon reveal the completion date of construction.
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