Clive Palmer lawyers muzzle workers

CLIVE Palmer has called in lawyers to draft a confidentiality contract for all staff to sign by Monday when his maiden speech is due.

BRUISED by leaks to the media spilling from his Sunshine Coast dinosaur park and resort, Clive Palmer has called in lawyers to draft a four-page confidentiality contract for all staff to sign by Monday when his maiden speech in federal parliament is due.

The gag, which was leaked to The Australian yesterday by one of Mr Palmer's staff, warns that "it is a condition of your ongoing employment with Palmer Coolum Resort that employees agree to and sign a confidentiality agreement".

The move comes after disclosures by staff, including Mr Palmer's former security manager, Mike Hennessy, who accused the resources tycoon and newly elected federal member for Fairfax of being a "tyrannical bully" who yells and swears at his employees and his executives.

The confidentiality contracts were sent to staff after The Australian on Monday revealed Mr Palmer's angry tirade against one of the resort's most loyal guests, French publisher Didier Guerin, who has been a visitor from his Sydney home for almost 20 years and was paying $950 a night for a villa.

Mr Guerin's complaint to the Palmer Grill's chef that a $40 black angus steak was overcooked, then not cooked at all, led to Mr Palmer turning on the guest and his wife, Margaret, and saying: "You are a f . . kwit. Don't speak to my chefs like that. I own this resort and I want you to f . . k off."

Staff were shocked as Mr Guerin and his wife were then told to leave the restaurant to go to their villa, pack their belongings, pay their bill and leave the resort on the second night of a five-night holiday.

The confidentiality contracts warn staff that they cannot discuss any "information disclosed in written, electronic, oral or other form in connection with (resort) business, or otherwise . . . or Clive Palmer".

Information listed includes "methods of doing business" and "details concerning potential or current customers".

The contract states: "You must not make any statement to the press or any media concerning Us or any one of Us, without the prior written consent of Clive Palmer."

Inspectors from the Fair Work Ombudsman have been conducting a preliminary investigation into the stripping of entitlements from the resort's staff, whose numbers have fallen from more than 650 to about 150.

The resort will soon host guests from the Club de Madrid, a Spanish think tank which awarded Mr Palmer with the title "Secretary-General, World Leadership Alliance", and "President, World Economic Council", after he made generous donations of cash from the coffers of his Queensland Nickel group of companies.

Resort staff have been busily preparing for the guests as well as the soft opening of a car show, Palmer Motorama, which will give visitors the opportunity to see some of Mr Palmer's vehicles for an entrance fee of about $37 a head.