Palmer’s democratic deficit

Built on borrowed funds, PUP is now on borrowed time

Clive Palmer vowed to “reunite the nation” with the Palmer United Party. Instead, he has torn apart the fabric of democracy. His political ambition was funded by his business empire; Mr Palmer basked in the media spotlight as his empire fell into ruin, leaving hundreds of workers without a future and government footing the bill.

The full extent of the damage Mr Palmer has wrought is now coming to light. In December, Mr Palmer asked the Queensland state government to provide security for a $35 million loan to prop up the Queensland Nickel refinery in the context of falling commodity prices. But it emerged that since 2013, the refinery had paid over $20m to PUP. Mr Palmer in effect took from Queensland workers to fund PUP, just as he took from his former Chinese business partner CITIC to buy a seat in parliament. Mr Palmer also sought $48m from CITIC to prop up the refinery. The bid was rejected in court. CITIC spokesman Rob Newton drew attention to the hypocrisy of the billionaire crying poor given his lavish spending on discretionary items such as a replica Titanic and robotic dinosaurs.

Company funds were channelled into Mr Palmer’s political career and the risks involved should have been obvious. He must have known that if the refinery failed, the potential cost to taxpayers would be staggering. The Weekend Australian obtained internal documents prepared by BHP before it offloaded the refinery to Mr Palmer in 2009. It estimated the cost of closing the refinery and rehabilitating its surrounding environment at $1.415 billion.

While Mr Palmer resigned as director of Queensland Nickel in 2014, questions have been raised as to whether he was acting as a “shadow director”. It is at least curious that the company continued to fund PUP throughout last year with Mr Palmer’s nephew, Clive Mensink, acting as director. Even as the global nickel price fell, Queensland Nickel channelled funds into Mr Palmer’s political party, but it did not provide adequately for refinery workers to whom it owed a primary duty of care.

The moral consequence of Queensland Nickel funding Mr Palmer’s political ambitions was laid bare by the plight of hundreds of refinery workers made redundant with little recourse to justice. The refinery, now under voluntary administration, had not made superannuation contributions for employees since November. Administrators have confirmed that it owes $70m to creditors and there are no funds to pay redundancy entitlements, estimated to be at least $10m. The company has not issued all of the workers made redundant with separation certificates, leaving many unable to access basic Centrelink services.

State and federal governments have been left to clean up the mess left in part by Queensland Nickel’s high stakes political gamble on PUP. Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk has announced $187m in accelerated works, including an expansion of the Port of Townsville, a move expected to provide around 100 of the sacked workers with new jobs. And the federal government has provided $500,000 to help them transition into new careers.

As more documentation comes to light, Clive Palmer’s claim to be a champion of Australian workers and an honest independent in a corrupt political milieu continues to unravel. Later this year, Australians will have the perfect opportunity to right his wrongs by punishing PUP at the ballot box. It is an opportunity and a moral obligation.