Clive Palmer firms jump queue of creditors for Queensland Nickel

Four days before Queensland Nickel went into voluntary administration, two Palmer firms staked a claim on its assets.

Clive Palmer in Townsville this week. Picture: Fiona Harding

Four days before Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel Industries collapsed into voluntary administration, two of his companies staked a claim on all of the refinery’s assets in an apparent attempt to squeeze out redundant workers and other creditors.

China First and Waratah Coal — both connected to Mr Palmer’s proposed Galilee Basin coalmine — lodged claims on the Personal Property Securities Register to become secured creditors of QNI on Thursday, the day before 237 refinery workers were sacked.

Corporate lawyers described the move as a desperate attempt to shore up the companies’ interests ahead of unsecured creditors, such as rail group Aurizon, which is owed $20 million by QNI, when the fight over the refinery’s assets ­begins.

Legal experts said the man­oeuvre could disadvantage sacked workers, already furious at being denied access to their redundancy ­entitlements.

Mr Palmer, personally cited in the corporate documents as the contact person for China First and Waratah Coal, has ­previously boasted that the refinery, outside Townsville, had unencumbered assets of $1.9 billion.

Less than a week before the claim was lodged, QNI’s sole ­director, Clive Mensink, Mr Palmer’s nephew, was replaced as an office-bearer for China First and Waratah Coal by Mr Palmer’s wife, Anna.

The creditor claim by Waratah Coal comes as the business endures a cash squeeze of its own. A sworn affidavit from Mr Palmer’s group financial controller, Daren Wolfe, late last year stated that Waratah had a cash balance of just $21,195.63 at October 30 and was struggling to meet the minimum spending commitments needed to hold on to its coal leases in Queensland’s Galilee Basin.

As apology letters signed by Mr Palmer yesterday started ­appearing in the letter boxes of workers who lost their jobs on Friday, it emerged that Mr Palmer also placed Palmer Aviation — which owns at least one of the self-proclaimed billionaire’s private planes — into voluntary ­administration on ­Friday.

In a deepening of the federal politician and resources magnate’s financial woes, it can be ­revealed that it’s understood a bank is the major creditor in that case, with the financial institution expected to sell the plane and keep the proceeds.

FTI Consulting is acting as voluntary administrator in both matters, and last night confirmed that Mr Palmer had first met with the firm in October to discuss QNI’s “financial position, near-term financial forecast and the possibility of arranging near-term funding for the Queensland Nickel Group of Companies”.

Mr Palmer first discussed the possibility of sinking the company into voluntary administration on January 3. FTI Consulting executives flew to Townsville to spend three days at the Yabulu plant the following week.

Australian Workers’ Union state secretary Ben Swan said the revelations vindicated his decision to call for an investigation into the nickel refinery by corporate watchdog the Australian ­Securities & Investments Commission. “The timeline and chain of events only gives the union a heightened sense of concern about the appropriateness of transactions that have taken place,” Mr Swan said.

Mr Palmer’s apology letters yesterday infuriated many who are being denied access to their entitlements. “I can only say how sad I am that we have lost your skills and services to the company and I can only apologise that we were not able to retain you as part of our workforce,” he said.

The note has inflamed tensions between ex-workers and Queensland Nickel, Mr Palmer and the administrators. Queensland Nickel donated more than $21m to Mr Palmer’s political vehicle, the Palmer United Party, in the past two years, including about $288,000 late last year.

After flying to Townsville for crisis talks, Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said yesterday she had fast-tracked $125m worth of public works in an ­attempt to create more than 430 jobs in the region.

Federal Employment Minister Michaelia Cash announced a $500,000 retraining package to help the workers find new work.