Clive Palmer challenges ATO, saying he won't pay $6.2m in carbon tax

NEW MP Clive Palmer has dared the Australian Taxation Office to sue his company to recover $6.2 million in unpaid carbon tax.

Clive Palmer

NEW MP Clive Palmer has dared the Australian Taxation Office to sue his company Queensland Nickel to recover $6.2 million in unpaid carbon tax.

The wealthy Queenslander, who claims to have "retired" from business, said the company would not pay the bill, which it was appealing in the High Court.

"We can justifty it to our shareholders," he told the National Press Club in Canberra today following his swearing in in the new parliament.

"And the government, if they think they're owed the taxes, they should commence legal proceedings against us.

"We've commenced legal proceedings in the High Court of Australia against them."

PORTRAIT: Clive, tyrannical bully

REPLY: I swear, but I'm no bully

Mr Palmer today said he was not the decision maker in any of his companies but merely an "investor".

He said he would not divest himself of any of his business holdings, and maintained he had no conflicts of interest between his personal and political roles.

Earlier, Mr Palmer missed his first vote of the new parliament when he was absent from the chamber for a division to decide the new speaker.

Mr Palmer says he'll put his business interests aside to represent voters after his surprise win in the Queensland seat of Fairfax, making him the lone Palmer United Party member in parliament's lower house.

But the billionaire hasn't promised to attend every sitting parliament for the next three years.

"I'm not going to commit to sit in a box and do nothing," Mr Palmer told reporters as he arrived for his first day of parliament on Tuesday.

"Six months of the year virtually, members of parliament get elected to represent their community but they live in Canberra.

"No wonder they're devoid of any ideas."

Mr Palmer, however, says he'll commit all of his time to being a member of parliament.

"I'm full-time. Fully retired from business, one hundred per cent politician. That's all I'm doing. Nothing else."

Mr Palmer's party could end up with three senators in the upper house come July next year, giving him a share of the balance of power and the ability to block or support government legislation in the Senate.

The Prime Minister said he wanted to axe the carbon tax as his first order of parliamentary business to relieve business of a significant burden

But he said no business would be let off a carbon tax debt.

''They've got to pay their bills, obviously,'' he said.