Clive Palmer dines with ex-Labor rorters

Clive Palmer has had lunch with two former­ Labor figures whose polit­ical careers went down the drain over vote rorting.

palmer lunch

As Queensland authorities were investigating a suspected toxic spill into local creeks from Clive Palmer’s nickel refinery, the federal MP was at lunch with two former­ Labor figures whose polit­ical careers went down the drain over vote rorting.

Minutes after settling a defam­ation action he launched in 2014 against former Queensland premier Campbell Newman, Mr Palmer broke bread in Brisbane yesterday with former Labor deputy premier Jim Elder and one-time ALP operative Warwick Powell.

A lobbyist for Mr Palmer for a decade, Mr Elder was forced to resign­ and Mr Powell was turfed out of the ALP over their involvement in electoral fraud aired at the Shepherdson inquiry in the early 2000s.

The lunch meeting followed Mr Powell’s unlikely bid to secure state and federal loans for a community buyback of Mr Palmer’s stricken refinery through his company, Sister City Partners.

Mr Elder declined to disclose the topic of talk at the lunch, and professed to not having thought of the historical significance of the reunion with Mr Powell, saying “it didn’t even dawn on me’’.

Mr Palmer did not return calls to discuss the lunch or his morning mediation — next door to the restaurant — to resolve a $1 million defamation action he brought against Mr Newman and then deputy premier Jeff Seeney.

Mr Newman later tweeted a statement: “Mr Palmer, Mr Seeney and Mr Newman regret all past disparaging comments made about each others’ integrity. They agree to move forward without further comment.’’

Meanwhile, state Envir­on­ment Minister Steven Miles said his department was investigating test results showing the north Queensland nickel refinery had contravened its environmental licenc­e due to elevated ammonia levels in two creeks near the Great Barrier Reef Marine Park.