Palmer fails to deliver donation

Billionaire Clive Palmer has failed­ to deliver on a promise to donate $100 million of his wealth to Aboriginal communities.

Clive Palmer plans to spend at least $50 million on his federal election campaign for the United Australia Party. Picture: AAP

Billionaire Clive Palmer has failed­ to deliver on a promise to donate $100 million of his wealth to Aboriginal communities, despi­te budgeting to spend at least half that amount on an advertisi­ng blitz ahead of the federal­ election next month.

When Mr Palmer made the pledge in 2008, it was hailed as the greatest single act of philan­thropy in Australian history.

Eleven years later, no grants have been made and the charit­able fund he created to make the donations has a cash balance of just $109.

According to filings with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission, the Palmer Care Foundation is inactive and has no employees.

The foundation is run by Mr Palmer and close associate Domeni­c Martino, whose business history includes links to collapsed­ telco NewTel.

Mr Palmer reaffirmed the $100m commitment in 2013, claiming that payments would start as soon as the Sino Iron project in the Pilbara began exporting iron ore to China. Exports began in late 2013.

Mr Palmer’s private company, Mineralogy, began receiving hundreds of millions­ of dollars in royalties from the project early last year, after a protract­ed legal battle with Chinese ­project operator Citic.

The Australian can also reveal that Mr Palmer last year quietly amended the deed of the Palmer Care Foundation.

The foundation will now donate­ to charit­able works throughout Australia, including for unemployed people and sporting clubs, rather than just for Aborigines in the Pilbara. This is despite the promise to support “indigenous communit­ies” in Western Australia being enshrined in the WA legislation governing the Sino Iron project.

It is understood the WA government is powerless to force Mr Palmer to follow through with the pledge because the 2002 state agreement says Mineralogy is only “intending to” spend $100m.

A spokesman for Premier Mark McGowan said he understood payments had not been made as described in the state agreement. “This is disappointing, but not surprising,” he said.

When asked about the promise, a spokesman for Mr Palmer said he could not comment as the issue was being considered as part of an appeal lodged by Citic against the ruling last year that delivered the Sino iron royalties windfall to Mineralogy.

“When resolved, Mineralogy will be able to update,” he said.

When Mr Palmer pledged the money in January 2008 he said his donation should serve as an example to other miners making millions of dollars from iron ore in the Pilbara.

He later claimed that fellow billionaires Andrew Forrest and Gina Rinehart, as well as mining giants BHP Billiton and Rio Tinto, did not care about the high infant mortality rate in the region.

“What’s needed is more love and forgiveness to be extended to those less fortunate than ourselves and the reconciliation of man to his brothers in Aboriginal communities,’’ Mr Palmer said.

He also said at the time that the charitable foundation would be “one of his main tasks’’.

Mr Palmer plans to spend at least $50m on his federal election campaign to win seats for the United Australia Party.