Politics is Clive Palmer’s ‘golf’ – and he’ll keep pouring money into it as long as his wife will let him

Mercurial mining magnate answers questions at the National Press Club through Tim Tams, telling journalists: It's my money. If I lose it, I lose it'

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Clive Palmer faced a conundrum in Canberra on Thursday: whether to answer a question on China and Taiwan from one of the press gallery's most esteemed journalists, or swallow the chunk of chocolate biscuit he'd just bitten into.

In the end, he did both, telling Andrew Probyn from Nine News that once the American commitment goes, Taiwan wouldn't be able to defend itself" through a mouthful of Tim Tam.