Clive Palmer: a court won’t rule against me

Clive Palmer accused Queensland Nickel’s administrators of corrupting their investigation in pursuit of fees.

FTI Consulting says Clive Palmer may have gained directly and indirectly while acting as a shadow director of Queensland Nickel.

Besieged MP Clive Palmer has accused Queensland Nickel’s administrators of corrupting their investigation in pursuit of further “exorbitant” fees.

The Member for Fairfax faces the possibility of up to five years’ jail, bankruptcy and the unravelling of his financial empire after he was found to have siphoned more than $200 million from his cash-strapped nickel refinery to his other businesses before its collapse.

In a statement issued today, Mr Palmer emphatically denied he was a “shadow director” of the company, but did not address the voluntary administrator FTI Consulting’s specific allegations.

“The truth of the matter is the administrators are embarking on a campaign to secure more funds for their exorbitant fees,” Mr Palmer said.

“The administrators did so without providing myself or others named in their report the opportunity to be aware of such allegations or discuss such matters.

“The report calls into question the professionalism and impartiality of FTI. Their findings are filled with innuendo.”

Mr Palmer criticised FTI for refusing to follow instructions that he said could have kept the refinery operating.

“It was FTI who made the decision not to pay entitlements, not any person working for Queensland Nickel,” he said.

Cash hits out at Palmer

Employment Minister Michaelia Cash has condemned as a “disgrace” the notion that Clive Palmer could use a taxpayer-funded scheme to “get off the hook” for dudding Queensland Nickel workers of about $73 million in entitlements.

Taxpayers could ultimately bankroll a liquidator’s pursuit of Mr Palmer in a bid to recover money spent on entitlements promised to employees of the self-described billionaire.

Senator Cash said the situation was “very distressing” for the employees and the government was looking at the administrators’ report before activating the Fair Entitlements Guarantee bail-out fund.

“This is Clive Palmer’s problem. Clive is responsible for this,” she told ABC radio.

“Clive is morally obliged, quite frankly, to pay over the entitlements to these workers. I think it is a disgrace that Clive Palmer may well get off the hook.”

The MP for Fairfax also faces investigation by corporate regu­lators, with a union leader urging the Australian Securities & Investments Commission to “sink its teeth” into the businessman and his nephew and close associate Clive Mensink.

Government MPs could also refer Mr Palmer for a privileges committee investigation if they suspect Mr Palmer’s actions have been contemptuous of parliament.

Liquidation of Queensland Nickel would automatically trigger the Fair Entitlements Guarantee — a taxpayer-funded safety net that would ensure most of the workers’ unpaid entitlements — and make the commonwealth a priority creditor of the business.

Bill Shorten yesterday wrote to Malcolm Turnbull urging the government to expedite the flow of FEG funds, although that would prejudge that the company’s liquidation was inevitable.

The government would also be cleared to activate the FEG Recovery Programme, a public fund to support debt recovery efforts, including lawsuits, that the liquidators otherwise could not afford.

FTI Consulting voluntary administrator John Park said federal government or external funding would be sought to pay for the post-liquidation pursuit of QN’s debts from Mr Palmer’s other companies and from Mr Palmer and Mr Mensink personally.

The Coalition has resisted opposition calls to invoke the FEG ahead of liquidation, hoping the company would trade its way out of trouble or Mr Palmer would heed public pressure to shore up workers’ entitlements.

With AAP