Clive Palmer’s LNP war: death by paper cut

CLIVE Palmer has led a paper bombardment of the Queensland government, with more than 300 Right to Information requests.

CLIVE Palmer has led a paper bombardment of the Queensland government, with more than 300 Right to Information requests for internal documents about his own nickel, coal and other commercial interests.

Mr Palmer’s companies have filed at least 318 requests under the state’s version of Freedom of Information since Premier Campbell Newman angered the resources tycoon in 2012 by refusing to give preferential treatment to his plans for a massive coal and port development.

The rejection of Mr Palmer’s multi-billion-dollar hopes for his company, Waratah Coal, led to his vow to destroy Mr Newman and the Queensland government, resulting in the founding of the Palmer United Party.

Waratah Coal and other Palmer companies, including Queensland Nickel, have been lodging requests at a rate of about three a week for the past 24 months, documents examined by The Australian show.

The Premier’s Office and the Department of Premier and Cabinet have received 50 RTI requests from companies controlled by the federal member for Fairfax. That meant 23 per cent of all RTIs they had received since the Liberal National Party came to office had been from Mr Palmer”, a spokesman said.

Mr Palmer has exercised his appeal rights with an “external review” of about half of the decisions he received from these 50 premier-related requests. A government insider said Mr Palmer trumped individual journalists and other companies as the most prolific and frequent user of RTI.

Few if any of the requests from Mr Palmer’s companies appeared to be concerned with eliciting general information about broader economic issues unrelated to his commercial interests.

The 318 RTI requests by companies controlled by Mr Palmer, who has pledged to run candidates in most Queensland seats in the state election expected early next year, have resulted in tens of thousands of hours of work for public servants, with only some of the costs passed on to the PUP leader.

Mr Palmer has previously: expressed concern that his telephones are bugged; claimed Rupert Murdoch’s former wife is a Chinese spy; accused the US government and the CIA of being involved with Greenpeace to ruin Queensland’s coal industry; and declared that spy flights targeted his nickel refinery.

In the past seven months, Mr Palmer has also been searching for documents showing any contact between the Newman government and The Australian, which has been investigating the PUP leader.

The newspaper’s reports about the overflow of toxic sludge from overfilled tailings ponds at Mr Palmer’s nickel refinery on the edge of the Great Barrier Reef prompted a flurry of RTI requests seeking documents about any meetings or correspondence between the government and this reporter. Queensland Nickel lodged seven identical RTI requests over seven working days on this topic this year.

Mr Palmer’s companies have also sprung into RTI action after reports in The Australian highlighted environmental damage and a failure to rehabilitate holes drilled on central Queensland cattle properties.

Mr Palmer’s other RTI targets include political arch rival, Santo Santoro, a lobbyist and former Liberal Party heavyweight, and resources magnate Gina Rinehart, who was given the green light for a coal province in Queensland.

In one broad sweep Mr Palmer sought “all documents whatsoever including but not limited to correspondence, file notes, meeting notes, internal memos, diary/calendar entries, and emails etc” in relation to Ms Rinehart’s companies, GVK and Hancock Coal.

Mr Palmer has launched a renewed bid in recent weeks to seek all documents “concerning cancellation of the declared Galilee (Basin) coal project”.

A source close to Mr Palmer’s office said he was obsessed with trying to find a “smoking gun” document that could show his coal aspirations were unfairly shunned by the Newman government. Mr Palmer has repeatedly accused the government of corruption but failed to produce any evidence, while his Supreme Court bids have also failed.

Mr Palmer has launched Supreme Court defamation actions against Mr Newman and Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney, over claims the tycoon had attempted to buy political power. Mr Palmer has a poor recent record in defamation, with the Supreme Court ordering that he pay indemnity costs last year over his failed bids to sue a football official and a newspaper.

Other recent RTI requests by Mr Palmer concern an allegedly improper attempt by a PUP official to lure a Gold Coast LNP state parliamentarian, Michael Hart, to the party. Michael Hart, said he was asked: “What can I offer you to come across to the Palmer Party?”