Clive Palmer seeks a second recusal in Queensland Nickel case

Clive Palmer claims the judge overseeing the mammoth Queensland Nickel liquidation battle should be taken off the case.

Clive Palmer claims the judge overseeing the mammoth Queensland Nickel liquidation battle may have made “unfavourable comments” about him to other lawyers and should be taken off the case.

The accusations against ­Supreme Court judge David Jackson come less than two months after he was appointed to the case following the recusal of ­judge John Bond on the ground of apprehended bias.

Mr Palmer, who represented himself in court yesterday, said he would need a week to seek and lodge affidavits from lawyers who told him they had heard Justice Jackson make the “unfavourable comments”.

Liquidators for Mr Palmer’s Queensland Nickel business, which closed in 2016, are seeking to recover hundreds of millions of dollars owed to creditors.

The matter is set to go to trial in April but Mr Palmer has sought to defer that.

Justice Jackson yesterday said he could not deal with other applications until he had dealt with the recusal application.

“By making an application of actual bias I can’t continue to make orders in the case as if it hasn’t happened,” he said.

Mr Palmer revealed he was investigating claims the judge had discussed him in a negative manner with legal colleagues.

“It’s been told to me, Your Honour, that you’ve made unfavourable comments about me to members of the court and I’m pursuing that at the moment,” Mr Palmer said.

“I’m not saying it’s true, I’m not saying it’s untrue.

“I’m certainly pursuing the people involved in that to see if I can get them to swear affidavits. I don’t know if this is a furphy, but the people that passed this to me are of such standing that it’s important that I look at it.”

Mr Palmer said it was his understanding the conversations had been with “officers of the court, barristers and solicitors” but not judges.

Justice Jackson asked when he was “supposed to have said these things”.

“In the last couple of weeks, Your Honour,” Mr Palmer said.

Mr Palmer is also concerned that an email between judges from the Federal Court, ­Supreme Court of Western Australia and Supreme Court of Queensland could influence Justice Jackson’s decisions.

He said the recusal application was not “made lightly” and had come after he considered the matter while overseas recently.

He also claimed Justice Jackson’s friendship with Mark McIvor, with whom Mr Palmer fell out in the 1970s, could also influence the judge’s decisions.

Justice Jackson said his friendship with Mr McIvor did not revolve around Mr Palmer.

The matter will return to court on November 1.