Palmer vows to sue Turnbull, Cash

Clive Palmer says he will sue the PM, and Employment Minister, over their comments around QN’s collapse.

Clive Palmer outside the Brisbane Court complex in November.

Clive Palmer says he will sue Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull and Employment Minister Michaelia Cash for defamation over “lies” about his role in the collapse of Queensland Nickel.

The former federal MP says he is seeking $10 million in damages from the Prime Minister.

He is also pursuing a defamation case against Employment Minister Michaelia Cash for allegedly besmirching his reputation over Queensland Nickel, which collapsed last year with debts of about $300m and the loss of 800 Townsville refinery jobs.

Mr Palmer is seeking $250,000 in damages from Senator Cash, but has offered to shave $100,000 off that if she publicly apologises to him for assassinating his character.

Mr Palmer — who’ll face a court grilling on Wednesday about the collapse — says he won’t let his former political foes get away with dragging down his reputation as a businessman who saved the nickel company back in 2009, at the request of the Queensland government.

“They’ve lied to people about Queensland Nickel and my role in it. They’ve said things designed to damage me, personally, in the public’s eyes, which were not true and they did that for political reasons,” Mr Palmer said on Tuesday. He said he’d been the victim of “the biggest political witch hunt Australia has ever seen”, and that the public attacks on him were designed to destroy him and his party as players on the political landscape.

“Ms Cash will have her day in court, and the Prime Minister will too, unless he thinks he’s above the law.”

A search of civil proceedings lodged with Queensland’s courts shows Mr Palmer’s lawyers have not yet submitted any paperwork for the promised law suits. AAP has sought comment from the prime minister and Senator Cash.

Mr Palmer opted not to recontest his Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax at the last election, after opinion polls suggested support for him was almost non-existent in the aftermath of Queensland Nickel’s demise in January 2016.

The former MP is due in the Federal Court on Wednesday, where the nickel company’s liquidators will quiz him about how the company was run. Mr Palmer has denied acting as a shadow director, and he’s defended himself against claims he raided Queensland Nickel’s bank accounts to fund his other businesses and even his political party.

During his first court examination last year, Mr Palmer admitted he had the authority to direct Queensland Nickel to make political donations, support his other companies, and even forgive loans.

But he said there was nothing untoward about any of that, given Queensland Nickel was owned by companies that belonged entirely to him.

AAP