Queensland nickel: Clive Palmer fails workers, 500 more set to go

Clive Palmer’s workers fear final shutdown of Yabulu is now imminent.

Queensland Nickel owner Clive Palmer. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen

Clive Palmer’s bid to save his cash-strapped nickel refinery is collapsing, after he failed to employ­ any of the plant’s staff, forcing administrators to sack more than 500 workers today.

Workers now fear the final shutdown of the Yabulu refinery — worth more than $1 billion to the struggling Townsville economy — is imminent, an outcome that could land the federal government with a $60 million bill for redundancy entitlements and the Queensland government with an even more costly envir­on­mental mess to clean up.

The leader of the Palmer United Party wrested control of the refinery­ from its old manager, his under-administration Queensland Nickel, on Monday, installing Queensland Nickel Sales in its place and promising to employ all 550 staff on the same terms and conditions by yesterday afternoon.

But the employment contracts did not materialise, and it became clear Mr Palmer had not done even rudimentary preparations for the takeover, failing to organise transfers of the environmental licences required to legally run the plant, or new contracts with suppliers.

There are also doubts about the $23m in conditional finance that Mr Palmer said he had secured­ from a Sydney financier, backed by the refinery’s assets and his personal holdings.

Administrators FTI Consulting said Yabulu workers would be made redundant at 5pm today, unless Queensland Nickel Sales offered them jobs. A skeleton staff will remain.

Yabulu crew co-ordinator Darran Morris, a father of two who has worked at the refinery for seven years, was one of more than 500 staff provisionally stood down yesterday.

“I wasn’t expecting it today, but I was thinking it was inevit­able,” said Mr Morris, who estim­ates he is owed about $60,000 in entitlements and unpaid leave.

“Every other business he (Clive Palmer) has run — the A-League team, the Coolum Resort, Palmer Aviation — has sunk. Everything he touches, he destroy­s. But, unlike us, he makes money from it.”

Administrator John Park told The Australian that inaction by Mr Palmer’s Queensland Nickel Sales had forced his hand.

“We’re deeply saddened by this outcome, but we’ve been forced to terminate the staff after being removed as the manager on Monday,” Mr Park said.

“We’ve been waiting for the new manager to offer new contracts but we can’t continue to sit for forever and a day to wait. We were left with no alternatives.”

The Australian understands Queensland Nickel Sales — led by Mr Palmer and the company’s sole director, Mr Palmer’s nephew­ Clive Mensink — has been repeatedly warned about the prospect of a mass sacking.

Australian Workers Union state secretary Ben Swan said he was sceptical that Mr Palmer’s Queensland Nickel Sales would be able to salvage the situation and keep the refinery open.

“Anyone who could come out and boast that he’s saved the refinery­ twice and then failed to act as he’s indicated he would — (which has) now seen a further loss of 550 jobs — needs to be treated with absolute suspicion,” Mr Swan said.

“Each of these workers is experiencing the absolute betrayal which is now going to see them out of a job. Unless something dramatic happens in the next 24 hours, it looks like (closure) might be a foregone conclusion.”

Mr Palmer did not return calls and did not issue a statement last night, but The Australian understands he has blamed the situation on the fact Queensland Nickel Sales does not hold an environmental authority.

Pre-empting an attack from the federal MP for Fairfax, state Environment Minister Steven Miles went on the offensive last night, saying it was “astonishing” that Mr Palmer only lodged an application for an environment­al authority two days after he had ejected the plant’s manager.

The Environment Department has 20 days to assess Queensland Nickel Sales’s applic­ation for an authority and Dr Miles said it was working “as swiftly as possible with the appropriate checks and balances in place”.

The Australian can reveal that Workplace Health and Safety Queensland is also considering an application to transfer the refinery’s Major Hazard Licence to Queensland Nickel Sales, warning that operating the plant without the permit was not allowed.

The Australian understands Queensland Nickel Sales only made the application to WHSQ yesterday afternoon.

Bill Shorten and state Treas­urer Curtis Pitt called on Malcolm­ ­Turnbull to do more to help the more than 800 Yabulu workers who have lost their jobs since January.