Clive Palmer nickel refinery’s $15m debt payment off the rails

Rail group Aurizon is shaping up as a key player in the future of Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel refinery.

Rail group Aurizon is shaping up as a key player in the future of Clive Palmer’s Queensland Nickel refinery and its 767 workers after the Queensland government expressed concerns about stepping in with a bailout.

The Australian Stock ­Exchange-listed Aurizon has emerged as the refinery’s single biggest creditor, with affidavit material obtained by The Australian showing that QN has more than $15 million in unpaid invoices from Aurizon dating back to June this year.

The willingness of Aurizon and other creditors to continue to wait for payment could be crucial to the future of QN as Mr Palmer scrambles to convince the Queensland government to step in with financial support.

Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt yesterday said he expected Mr Palmer to “pull out all the stops’’ to keep his Townsville nickel refinery afloat, while ­expressing concerns about setting a precedent if the government bowed to the businessman’s ­request for help. Mr Palmer has asked the Queensland government for a $40m bailout to keep the privately owned refinery afloat and avoid laying off the ­almost 800 workers at the refinery.

The embattled federal MP met Mr Pitt yesterday to seek a loan guarantee just hours after Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk confirmed Queensland Nickel had not provided documentation for a government-commissioned probe of its books.

Mr Pitt said there had been a “greater degree of co-operation’’ from Queensland Nickel but that more information was still needed if the government was to give any assistance, which would only be on a “temporary basis’’ if it was ­approved.

But he warned the government was reluctant to agree to Mr Palmer’s request, with Queensland Nickel not the only enterprise suffering from a worldwide fall in commodity prices.

“We have to be very cautious about providing direct assistance to a private firm because that may well set a precedent,’’ Mr Pitt said.

“Most people would expect Mr Palmer should pull out all the stops to ensure he is using his broader wealth and his broader business empire to ensure this plant remains open.

“That would be our expectation and we hope that is the case, because clearly we don’t want to see people in the Townsville region be put on the unemployment scrap heap close to Christmas.’’

A spokesman for Mr Palmer said the business was not commenting.

A government-commissioned report by KPMG into Mr Palmer’s company is understood to have raised concerns about the existence of tens of millions of dollars of unserviced loans between Mr Palmer’s web of companies.

Affidavit material lodged by Daren Wolfe — Mr Palmer’s group financial controller and the chief financial officer of Queensland Nickel — as part of the federal MP’s failed West Australian Supreme Court hearing also showed the Australian Taxation Office is owed $4.6m, while a further $1m is owed to chemicals company Ixom.

Aurizon and Ixom declined to comment.