Clive Palmer’s instructions to lawyers intensify Seeney battle

CLIVE Palmer has told lawyers he is “an extremely busy man” who should not have to follow Supreme Court rules or meet deadlines.

CLIVE Palmer has told his lawyers he is “an extremely busy man” who should not have to follow Supreme Court rules or meet deadlines in a defamation action he is pursuing against Queensland Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney.

The bitter war of words between the men, who have accused each other of corruption since Mr Seeney rejected Mr Palmer’s demands for preferential treatment for his Galilee Basin coal tenements, has led to more skirmishing in the defamation case in Brisbane.

Legal documents filed in the Queensland Supreme Court show that Mr Palmer’s tardiness in a case he brought has been sharply criticised by Mr Seeney’s lawyer, who said the resources tycoon “is proceeding incorrectly on the basis that compliance with the (rules) is subject to his own convenience and personal discretion”.

Mr Palmer’s failure to meet court obligations on time was described as “particularly odd in circumstances where the very purpose of a defamation proceeding is to promptly vindicate one’s reputation” by Mr Seeney’s lawyer, Ross Perrett, of Clayton Utz.

Mr Palmer was putting off key parts of his legal defence to the “never-never”, according to Mr Perrett, whose legal work for Mr Seeney is being funded by Queensland taxpayers.

Mr Palmer has also launched defamation proceedings against Premier Campbell Newman and that case is similarly stalled. Earlier this month, Mr Palmer ceased defamation proceedings against The Australian, which was not required to pay damages or make an apology to the Palmer United Party leader.

He has been defeated over the past year in a string of costly legal cases against parties including the Gold Coast Bulletin newspaper, a Football Federation arbitrator, an elderly dentist and Chinese government-owned companies in a major iron ore project.

Mr Palmer’s lawyer, Brett Bolton of HopgoodGanim, said he “categorically rejected” the suggestion that the delays and failures to file certain documents were part of a strategy to stall the case.

Mr Bolton said in a legal letter this month: “As you know, (Mr Palmer) is an extremely busy man. Due to (his) other commitments, we do not expect to be able to meet and confer with him at length … until sometime in November.”

Mr Perrett replied: “Your letter complains that (Mr Palmer) is ‘an extremely busy man’. With respect, that is not a proper justifi­cation to unilaterally decide to conduct the case in a way other than provided by the (rules).

“Our client, the Deputy Premier for Queensland, is also ‘an extremely busy man’, but he takes this liti­gation and his obligations seriously.”

Mr Perrett said Mr Palmer “should not be prosecuting his claim if he lacks the necessary availability and commitment to the proper conduct of the case” and while it was not unusual for defendants in defam­ation cases to be accused of delay, “it is unusual … for a plaintiff in a defam­ation case to engage in delay”.

Mr Palmer’s delays have been blamed on him being “an extremely busy man”, yet he has a poor attendance record in federal parliament. He has skipped about a third of parliamentary sittings, a record worse than Trade Minister Andrew Robb, despite his overseas travel commitments connected with his portfolio.

Last year, Mr Palmer went to nine out of 15 sittings. He managed 32 out of 43 in the first half of this year. Mr Palmer promised after he was elected a year ago that he had become a “full-time politic­ian” and had delegated his business commitments to staffers.

The stoush in the defamation proceedings, brought by Mr Palmer after he was accused of trying to buy power in Queensland and elsewhere, came after he described Mr Newman this week as a “little Hitler”, and the Liberal Nat­ional Party as a Nazi party.

After being required to provide the names of at least 500 state members of the PUP to the Electoral Commission Queensland to stave off deregistration, Mr Palmer said: “We’ll give little Hitler his list and he can then start his persecution of them like he has persecuted everyone across the state.”