Palmer in court - with sick bag and ventilator

Gripping an oxygen mask, vomit bag, Clive Palmeradmitted bankrolling his fugitive nephew’s luxury overseas cruises.

Clive Palmer holds sick bag arrives at court after the lunch break lunch.

A sick and shaky Clive Palmer – holding a sick bag and ventilator mask - has admitted he paid for two luxury overseas cruises for his now-missing nephew Clive Mensink, but says he should come back to Australia.

Forced into the Federal Court witness box this afternoon by Queensland Nickel liquidators hunting for Mr Mensink, Mr Palmer tried and failed to avoid giving evidence under oath, with his lawyers arguing his memory was affected by the morphine-based medicine he’d taken this morning.

“His concern is…he’s not in a position to give evidence of the whole truth (because) of his medication,” barrister Andrew Boe, for Mr Palmer, told the court. Mr Boe said Mr Palmer didn’t want later to be accused of giving false evidence.

But Federal Court judge John Dowsett reminded the former federal MP the testimony was “not a voluntary exercise” and urged him just to “do his best”.

Wearing a short-sleeved white polo shirt in chilly and rainy Brisbane, a rumpled-looking Mr Palmer had turned up at the Federal Court complaining about his rights as a citizen being infringed, and accusing the liquidators of leading a “witchhunt”.

“This is not about Queensland Nickel,” Mr Palmer said. “This is about a citizen under medication, which are narcotics which require…to be signed off in an act, should be dragged into court to give evidence, and whether he can give evidence.

“Because I can’t remember my Amex pin number for example. That’s what this is about. This is just a confirmation that this is a political witchhunt.”

Clive Palmer holds his sick bag at court.

Before he entered the courtroom, he lay down on a leather couch outside, using a pillow (that one of his entourage had brought to court in a shopping bag) to support his head and wearing a ventilator mask.

After being called to give evidence, Mr Palmer staggered to the witness box, with a sick bag in one hand and the mask in the other, and in a quiet and shaky voice, gave the oath.

Led through the evidence by Mr Boe, Mr Palmer said he had not spoken to Mr Mensink – the sole registered director of Queensland Nickel when it collapsed last year costing 800 workers their jobs and costing creditors $300m – since February.

However, he agreed he had an arrangement with Mr Mensink as an ex-employee to pay him $200,000 a year for the next three years as part of his employee’s entitlements.

“He would have gone mad if he wasn’t (being paid),” Mr Palmer said.

Mr Palmer also said he had used his credit card to pay for at least two of Mr Mensink’s overseas cruises, one departing Spain and one through the Caribbean.

He said he had spoken to Mr Mensink at one point, and his nephew was distressed.

“He indicated he had a lot of problems, he was mentally upset, not physically,” Mr Palmer said.

“He said he thought the way he’d been treated was a disaster.”

The court heard that “coincidentally” Mr Palmer’s Australian-based Bulgarian father-in-law Alexandar Sokolov had bumped into Mr Mensink twice overseas, once on a cruise and once in the Bulgarian capital Sofia.

Before the second occasion, Mr Palmer said he’d told his father-in-law that if he happened to see Mr Mensink, he should give him $60,000 and tell him to return to Australia.

But Mr Sokolov only gave Mr Mensink $10,000, Mr Palmer said.

“He’d met up with some woman or something,” Mr Palmer said of Mr Mensink’s stay in Sofia.

The former federal MP said he wouldn’t give his nephew any extra cash until he returned to Australia – where there are now two warrants out for Mr Mensink’s arrest for contempt of court, after dodging repeated attempts by lawyers to have him testify in the Queensland Nickel examination.

“He should come back to Australia and answer legitimate inquiries,” Mr Palmer said.