Clive Palmer to be grilled on QN crash but document quest goes on

Clive Palmer will be grilled about the collapse of Queensland Nickel, but liquidators have failed to serve a summons on his nephew.

Clive Palmer has been summonsed to appear at a Federal Court public examination at the end of the month over Queensland Nickel’s downfall, which saw nearly 800 workers sacked. Picture: Tara Croser.

Clive Palmer will be grilled under oath about the collapse of Queensland Nickel within weeks, but liquidators have failed to serve a summons on his nephew, who is still overseas.

The resources tycoon was yesterday summonsed to appear at a Federal Court public examination at the end of the month over the company’s downfall, which saw nearly 800 workers sacked.

However, Mr Palmer was served only after the federal government-appointed special purpose liquidators got court approval to serve his legal representatives, because they could not track down the former federal MP to serve him personally.

Liquidators PPB Advisory so far have failed to serve Mr Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink — the sole official director of the Townsville refinery — because he is overseas. The company’s general purpose liquidators, FTI Consulting, failed to serve Mr Mensink in June after he left Australia on scheduled trip. It is not known whether he has returned since.

Mr Mensink did not respond to questions yesterday, but his absence has forced former QN chief financial officer Daren Wolfe to swear court documents on behalf of QN’s parent companies, QNI Resources and QNI Metals.

The two companies, which own Mr Palmer’s mothballed Yabulu nickel refinery in Townsville, are demanding the Federal Court set aside a demand for the companies to turn over to liquidators an alleged 31.4 million documents for the public examination.

An affidavit sworn by Mr Wolfe, who was made redundant in March and acts as a consultant to Mr Palmer’s companies, claimed complying with the order would cost $523 million.

Mr Wolfe said says the demand would turn up 31.4 million documents, which would take a solicitor 2.6 million hours (at $200 an hour) to review for legal professional privilege. He also ­suggests 60 semi-trailers would be needed to take the documents from Townsville to Brisbane, and questioned whether they would fit in a courtroom.

“QNR and QNM consider that the order is oppressive and an abuse of the court process and it cannot reasonably be complied with in its current form,” Mr Wolfe’s affidavit says.

He said he had been instructed by Mr Mensink that the companies would allow the liquidators to access the documents at the ­refinery.

The companies’ application for interlocutory injunctions will be heard today.