Clive Palmer scratches Q&A for a rare visit to parliament

Clive Palmer has denied he pulled out of the ABC’s Q&A show next week because of a damaging administrator’s report.

Clive Palmer on ABC’s Q&A program in 2014.

Clive Palmer has pulled out of a scheduled appearance on the ABC’s Q&A show next week in the wake of a damaging administrator’s report into the collapse of Queensland Nickel.

At the end of last Monday’s Q&A program, host Tony Jones said Mr Palmer would be a guest on the live show next week.

He made the announcement after the ABC’s Four Corners screened a program highly critical of Mr Palmer’s business dealings. The federal MP for the Queensland-based seat of Fairfax later appeared live on Lateline.

Mr Palmer’s withdrawal from Monday’s Q&A was revealed on the show’s official Twitter ­account and the personal account of executive producer Peter McEvoy. “Clive Palmer has cancelled his scheduled appearance on next Monday’s #QandA”, they tweeted.

Mr Palmer told The Australian his decision to pull out of Q&A was unrelated to his commercial woes, and not a response to the ­allegation he was operating as a “shadow director” of Queensland Nickel.

He said “there wasn’t any money taken out of Queensland Nickel at all” and it was “rubbish” to suggest he was reacting to the Four Corners expose.

Mr Palmer said he had to give Q&A a miss on Monday because federal parliament was being recalled. He has one of the worst records of parliamentary attendance of any federal MP.

He said he continued to be a big supporter of the ABC: “I think the ABC is all for democracy, like The Australian is,” Mr Palmer said last night.

Last Monday’s Four Corners spoke to several people who have worked with Mr Palmer and believed he was operating as a shadow director of his Queensland Nickel refinery.

The program came after ­extensive coverage by The Australian into the dealings of the self-proclaimed Queensland billionaire.

While Mr Palmer refused to answer questions in a prerecorded interview with the show, he agreed to speak to ABC’s Lateline live immediately afterwards to refute its claims. Speaking to the show’s host Emma Alberici, he described the situation as a ­“misunderstanding”.

The decision to cancel his appearance is an unorthodox move for Mr Palmer, who has never hidden his admiration for Q&A host Jones.

The ABC declined to comment about Mr Palmer’s decision to withdraw from Q&A.