Clive Palmer’s bizarre Titanic bid ‘doubles in cost’ to as much as $1 billion

The cost of Clive Palmer’s plan to recreate the Titanic in Europe has spiked to as much as $1 billion, while sacked Aussie mine workers are still waiting for their money.

EXCLUSIVE

The cost of Clive Palmer’s flamboyant plan to recreate the Titanic in Europe has doubled to as much as $1 billion, while sacked Aussie mine workers still wait for their money.

Titanic II’s designer Fredrik Johansson says the cost of building an exact replica would increase “exponentially”.

It comes as Mr Johansson, who spoke to News Corp Australia from his office in Sweden, said the controversial businessman had never missed a payment for work on Titanic II.

But angry former Queensland Nickel workers who have waited three years for their full entitlements say they should be paid before any work was done on the luxury liner.

Clive Palmer’s flamboyant plan to recreate the Titanic in Europe has doubled to as much as $1 billion. Picture: NIKKI DAVIS-JONES

Mr Palmer, who racked up $300 million in debt when Queensland Nickel went bust in 2016, promised last month to pay the Townsville mine workers the $7 million they were owed.

But Maurice Blackburn employment lawyer Giri Sivaraman said he was aware of only one worker who being paid since Mr Palmer’s pledge.

“The workers …. simply don’t trust his promises. They feel betrayed and angry,” he said.

“It also seems particularly cruel to tell workers the money is there but it won’t be paid until after the election.”

Any payments should include interest for the three years they waited for the cash, he added.

But while workers are still out of pocket, Mr Palmer has never been late with a payment to his Titanic II designers, Mr Johansson said.

“We haven’t had any problems with them. They have been very smooth in that respect. They have been a good client,” he said.

What Titanic II may look like according to Sweden’s Tillberg Design. Picture: Supplied

Mr Johansson, part owner and executive project director of Tillberg Design of Sweden, has been leading the ship’s design team.

He said prices had increased in the ship building industry since the project was stalled in 2015.

When asked if the price had blown out from $500 million, he replied: “That was the cost at the time but today the ship yarn market is overheated so prices have come up a bit. It could be anything.

“Some of the biggest ships now cost $1 billion each. This is a smaller ship but a rather complex project so it’s very difficult to say. We haven’t started a detailed cost analysis.”

Mr Johansson said that making an exact replica of the ship, which was also up to modern safety standards, would be expensive.

Clive Palmer first floated the Titanic II idea in 2012. Picture: AAP

“The last five or 10 per cent of detail could drive up the cost exponentially,” he said.

Mr Palmer first floated the Titanic idea in 2012 but the project was stopped in 2015 when he was running out of money.

He had a Lazurus-like return to good fortune when the Western Australian Supreme Court ruled in his favour in 2017, forcing a Chinese mining company to pay him hundreds of millions in royalties.

That has funded his $60 million advertising splurge ahead of the May 18 election.

Mr Palmer quoted director James Cameron, of the 1997 film Titanic, when relaunching the project in October last year.

“As James Cameron reminds us, my heart will go on,” a dinner suit clad Mr Palmer said in the launch video on YouTube.

More than 1500 people died on the Titanic’s maiden voyage in 1912.

Mr Palmer’s office did not respond to questions.

Originally published as Clive Palmer’s bizarre Titanic bid ‘doubles in cost’ to as much as $1 billion