Palmer dealt double blow in assets case

Clive Palmer’s bid to keep $200m in assets from liquidators takes a hit, as does absent nephew Clive Mensink.

Clive Palmer last Friday. Picture: AAP

A brash Clive Palmer insists he’s “not concerned at all” about liquidators fighting to freeze more than $200m of his assets, after turning up to court to represent himself in the case.

Outside the Queensland Supreme Court today, where liquidators have asked Justice John Bond to freeze Mr Palmer’s assets, the former federal MP said he was unworried about the case.

“I’m not concerned at all, I mean you never want to put your life on material things. I’m sure that’s not a problem for me, but it’s never going happen,” Mr Palmer said.

He had just been dealt two legal blows by Justice Bond, who rejected Mr Palmer’s argument that another lawsuit by the liquidators should not be placed on the court’s commercial list.

Justice Bond also ruled Mr Palmer’s fugitive nephew Clive Mensink could be served with the lawsuit in absentia, given Mr Mensink has been overseas and uncontactable for more than a year.

Mr Palmer had tried to stop that, telling the court it seemed Mr Mensink had left Australia “for good”.

Asked outside court how he knew Mr Mensink had gone for good, Mr Palmer said he’d had no contact with his nephew and flagged an unlikely return to politics — despite deregistering his political party in the federal and state realms.

“Well I don’t know, I haven’t talked to him,” he said. “I would have thought he would have contacted me voluntarily. I mean, I’ve had no contact with him, I thought he would have contacted me.”

“I’m a Queenslander, I’m an Australian ... I love all the lifestyle we’ve got here in Queensland, so I’m not going anywhere, regardless of what Malcolm Turnbull hopes for, I’m staying here. This is the sort of case, the sort of thing, that tempts you to get back into politics, it’s a wholly political exercise against me.

“That Prime Minister is a hopeless disaster ... he should retire at the moment. I’m tempted to think about politics.

“My wife keeps on restraining me from doing that.”

Palmer faces ‘allowance’ restriction

If an order is granted by the Queensland Supreme Court, Mr Palmer will be given an allowance to pay for reasonable “living expenses”.

Special purpose liquidators PPB Advisory — picked by the federal government to claw back more than $300 million for creditors, including $70 million for taxpayers — have asked the Queensland Supreme Court for an order to stop Mr Palmer offloading his assets.

“The special purpose liquidators of Queensland Nickel can confirm that an application has been filed with the Supreme Court of Queensland for orders in respect of (preventing) the dissipation of assets held by Clive Palmer and associated entities,” a spokesman for PPB Advisory told The Australian.

Mr Palmer has turned up at the Supreme Court to represent himself in the application to freeze his assets, even though he has at least three other barristers representing his corporate interests.

Barrister Shane Doyle, for the special purpose liquidators, said he wanted the matter heard as soon as next Friday — which Mr Palmer will oppose.

Mr Palmer also revealed his fugitive nephew Clive Mensink — also the target of the special purpose liquidators’ lawsuit to claw back cash — has no plans to return to Australia.

“His attitude seems to be that he has left Australia for good,” Mr Palmer told the court.

He said he had not contacted his nephew since February this year, and neither had anyone else, including Mr Mensink’s lawyers who have been filing documents on his behalf.

Justice Bond ruled Mr Mensink could be served with the lawsuit in absentia, because it was impractical to serve him in person.

The judge pointed out that Mr Mensink appeared to be “swanning around” overseas and there were arrest warrants issued by the Federal Court for contempt because Mr Mensink did not cut his overseas trip short.

Mr Palmer, personally and through his corporate empire, owns a large property portfolio, several golf courses, at least one super yacht, a $5 million collection of vintage cars, and other assets.

“Clive Frederick Palmer must not remove from Australia or in any way dispose of, deal with, or diminish the value of any of its assets in Australia up to the unencumbered value of AUD$219,050,604.30 until further order,” the application for a freezing order reads.

Mr Palmer’s companies QNI Metals, QNI Resources, Palmer Leisure Coolum, Coeur de Lion Investments, Coeur de Lion Holdings, Mineralogy, Palmer Leisure Australia, Fairway Coal, Cart Provider, Closeridge and Waratah Coal are all named in the application for freezing of the assets.

The order, if granted, would require Mr Palmer and his co-defendants to notify King & Wood Mallesons — PPB Advisory’s solicitors — two days’ notice of plans to dispose of any of the assets.

“This order does not prohibit the Fourth Defendant, Mr Palmer, from paying a reasonable amount to be determined by the court on account of living expenses,” the documents read.

The application was filed yesterday and the matter will be mentioned before Queensland Supreme Court judge John Bond today, when he hears a slew other litigation related to the corporate collapse.

The order would not prevent Mr Palmer or his companies from paying reasonable business or legal expenses, or from disposing the assets “in the ordinary and proper course of its business”.

Queensland Nickel — north Queensland’s largest private employer — failed early last year, costing creditors $300 million and 800 workers their jobs.

PPB Advisory recently sued Mr Palmer and 20 other defendants, including two mysterious foreign women, for almost half a billion dollars in money owed, compensation and damages over the company’s demise.

Palmer alleges ‘witch hunt’

Mr Palmer has today hit back at the liquidators PPB Advisory, alleging they had crossed a line by “mixing professional objectivity with political loyalty”.

“The simple facts of the matter are that I am the full beneficiary in Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd and its joint venture companies QNI Resources Pty Ltd and QN Metals Pty Ltd,’’ Mr Palmer said in a statement.

“Under the laws of this country I was allowed to receive a dividend. During this period the directors were entitled to distribute $156 million, however I received nothing.

“That’s because I chose to leave the funds within the companies for the operating benefit and local community of Townsville.

“It’s an affront and dishonest for the liquidators to hide the facts from the Australian people.

“It is clear that the Prime Minister and his cabinet are pursuing a political witch hunt against me.”