Clive Palmer: I paid $19.5m Medicare levy for no bed

Billionaire Clive Palmer says he paid about $460 million in corporate and personal tax last year after pocketing hefty dividends fuelled by royalty payments from Chinese conglomerate CITIC Limited.

Mr Palmer said on Wednesday that his Medicare levy contribution alone was about $19.5 million, and it was ironic that no bed was available on the one occasion when he required treatment at a public hospital.