High Court gives Clive Palmer short shrift

Bid to have the law requiring ­corporate criminals to submit to public examination ruled uncon­stit­­utional has failed.

Clive Palmer, at Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel yesterday before the High Court hearing, said the nation’s governments were ‘trying to crush’ citizens’ rights. Picture: Kym Smith

The full bench of the High Court deliberated for just five minutes before dismissing Clive Palmer’s bid to have the law requiring ­corporate criminals to submit to public examination ruled uncon­stit­­utional.

After hearing evidence for most of yesterday, the judges ­adjourned for an uncommonly brief period before returning to deliver their unanimous verdict.

Had the court found in favour of the businessman and former federal MP, the decision would have had unprecedented ramifications for corporations law.

The court ruled that Mr Palmer and Ian Ferguson, the former director of Mr Palmer’s company Queensland Nickel, which went into receivership in April owing creditors $300 million, should pay costs to QN’s liquidat­ors. Five judges heard the case, with 20 legal counsel and silks ­appearing on behalf of Mr Palmer, Mr Ferguson, the liquidators, the commonwealth, Queensland, Victor­ia, NSW and South Australia.

Judge Susan Kiefel earlier hinted at the verdict, telling counsel for Mr Ferguson, Pat Zappia QC, that the “role of inquisitor” was “hardly a novel position for a court to take”.

“Courts have been asking questions, I think, since the 12th century,” she said.

Justice Kiefel adjourned the case until this morning, when the judges will outline their orders.

Mr Palmer was present in court yesterday morning, having arrived in a Bentley with his wife, Anna, and daughter Emily, but was absent for the decision.

One Nation senator Rod Culleton, who has had his eligibility for election referred to the High Court, also made an appearance to briefly watch Mr Palmer’s case.

During a lunch adjournment, Mr Palmer refused to apologise to Jewish groups offended by his comparison earlier between the Federal Court requiring him to undergo public examination and Nazi Germany. “I think it is like that and that’s what happened,’’ he said.

“They had inquisitions of ­people quite unjustly, they abrogated their rights, they had no right to remain silent.”

B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation Commission chairman Dvir Abra­m­ovich said it was outrageous for Mr Palmer to compare Australia’s laws to the monstrous laws enacted by the Third Reich. “By using this inappropriate and deeply offensive analogy, Clive Palmer betrays an ignorance of what really happened in Nazi Germany,” Dr Abramovich said.

At a press conference at Canberra’s Hyatt Hotel ahead of the hearing, Mr Palmer accused the federal, Victorian, Queensland, South Australian and NSW governments, whose attorneys-general have intervened in his matter, of “trying to crush the rights of ­citizens in this country so that they have to answer questions under compulsion of jailing”.

“Similar laws did apply in Nazi Germany,” he said.

Mr Palmer and Mr Ferguson brought the case after they and other former directors and executives of Queensland Nickel were subjected to days of intense public examination by liquidators in the Federal Court.

Mr Palmer was due to be questioned by former Queensland solicit­or-general Walter Sofronoff QC on behalf of the liquidator last month, but it was postponed until after yesterday’s decision.

He said yesterday he had faced no consequences as a result of the collapse of his business, which resulted in 800 Townsville workers losing their jobs, saying he had done nothing wrong.

Mr Palmer also said an Australian Securities & Investments Commission invest­ig­ation into his business dealings was proceeding only ­because The Australian’s Hedley Thomas had “got them investigating”.