Campbell Newman ‘surprised’ police have not examined Clive Palmer

CAMPBELL Newman has expressed “surprise” that allegations against a company controlled by Clive Palmer have not triggered a formal investigation.

QUEENSLAND Premier Campbell Newman has expressed “surprise” that serious allegations and courtroom evidence related to the siphoning of more than $12 million of Chinese funds from a bank account controlled by Clive Palmer have not yet triggered formal investigations by police.

Mr Newman, whose arch-enemy and looming political threat is Mr Palmer, the founder of the Palmer United Party who has vowed to destroy the Premier’s Liberal National Party dominance in Queensland, made the comment yesterday, two months after revelations were first aired in the Federal Court in Perth about the circumstances in which the money was taken from a National Australia Bank cheque account.

More evidence raised in documents filed in the Supreme Court in Brisbane last week showed that $2.167m of the $12m-plus of missing Chinese funds, which was only meant to be used to operate a remote West Australian port for the shipping of iron ore to China, was funnelled to Media Circus Network Pty Ltd a few days before the federal election in September.

Media Circus Network, a Brisbane-based media agency, was involved in booking TV, print and radio advertising during the PUP’s costly election campaign last year, which led to Mr Palmer’s narrow win in the Federal seat of Fairfax and the PUP’s balance-of-power success in the Senate.

Asked after a media conference in Brisbane yesterday whether Queensland police should be looking into the missing money, Mr Newman said: “Let me just say that my grab on that would be, given the amount of information in the public domain now, I am surprised that either the WA or the Queensland police haven’t yet appeared to have initiated any sort of investigation.” He did not respond to an attempt to seek further comment.

Asked by The Australian yesterday whether he would welcome a police investigation, Mr Palmer did not reply. He declined to comment when asked what ‘‘port management services’’ were performed at the port of Cape Preston, which Mr Palmer’s flagship company Mineralogy has not been operating, to justify withdrawals for costs of $12.167 million in eight weeks.

Citic Pacific, the Chinese government-owned company that has alleged that the money was wrongfully siphoned, has been trying to piece together all the documents in civil court proceedings and is yet to make a formal complaint to police.

However, the seriousness of the allegations has resulted in briefings of China’s Beijing-based political leadership.

Police in Queensland and Western Australia have given no indication they are investigating.

Mr Palmer, who launched Supreme Court defamation proceedings against Mr Newman earlier this year after the Premier accused him of trying to ‘‘buy’’ political power, has previously told the ABC’s Lateline program and other media outlets that The Australian’s reporting about the matter was an ‘‘invention’’, and the Chinese had neither complained nor taken action. He said there was no police investigation.

Mr Palmer is also running ­Supreme Court proceedings against the Deputy Premier, Jeff Seeney, and The Australian for alleged defamation.

He has repeatedly insisted that no money went missing last year. However, documents filed in the Supreme Court on behalf of one of his companies show it claims to have put more than $12m back into the account in May this year, days after the revelations were first published in The Australian.

Mr Palmer’s Mineralogy said in the court document: “The sum of $12,700,000 was credited to the bank account on 9 May, 2014, by a payment into the account by Queensland ­Nickel Pty Ltd.”

While the destination of the $2.167m withdrawal last September has been traced to Media Circus Network, it is not yet clear how the $10m, withdrawn from the NAB account in early August and funnelled to a company Mr Palmer controlled at the time, Cosmo Developments Pty Ltd, was spent.

Mr Palmer’s lawyers have told Brisbane arbitration proceedings, led by retired Supreme Court judge Richard Chesterman QC, that “the payment of the cheque numbered 2046 in the amount of $10,000,000 was for port management services at the Port of Cape Preston and was made to the nominated payee (Cosmo Developments) at the direction of Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd.”

Citic Pacific is pressing Mr Palmer’s company to hand over evidence of a ‘‘purported’’ port services agreement along with any evidence of work at the port, which was not operating at the time.

The Chinese do not believe that $12m could have been spent on the port. Media Circus Network, which received the $2.167 million, did no work relating to the operation of an iron ore port.