Clive Palmer’s cash trail: micro-donations from QNI fattened PUP

Clive Palmer’s cash-strapped companies Mineralogy and Qld Nickel donated nearly $10m to his political party.

Clive Palmer at his home. Picture: Mark Calleja

Clive Palmer’s cash-strapped companies Mineralogy and Queensland Nickel donated nearly $10 million to his political party in hundreds of instalments, ranging from $2.42 to more than $2.8m, before crying poor in court and sacking 237 workers.

Financial records published yesterday by the Australian Electoral Commission reveal the Palmer United Party enjoyed frequent access to QNI funds, billing the company 455 times last financial year — an average of 1.25 ­donations a day.

Although almost half of the money from QNI was withdrawn in one amount — $2.87 million on March 3 — there were more than 100 individual donations of less than $100, including two of $2.42.

Analysis by The Australian of state and federal fin­ancial records strongly suggests QNI, which collapsed into voluntary administration two weeks ago, paid for party expenses including commercial printing, chartered planes, accommodation and communications costs. The Australian understands the administrator, FTI Consulting, is reconstructing the company’s accounts and is investigating whether PUP had access to a QNI credit card, bank card or line of credit.

It is also probing whether the company regularly paid the political party’s bills.

PUP’s sole remaining senator, Zhenya Wang, yesterday insisted the party’s election campaign “delivered better value for the whole country” than if the millions had remained in the ailing refinery.

“The dollars, they obviously wouldn’t have helped a lot given the problem with the refinery is the current nickel price,” Senator Wang told The Australian.

“It would be difficult to imagine I would be in parliament today without the campaign and being in the parliament we have done many great things for the ­country.”

Senator Wang said he was concerned about the Townsville workers, but not about Mr Palmer’s management of the refinery.

The senator’s comments, and the further details about QNI’s ­donations to PUP, enraged current and former refinery workers yesterday.

Australian Workers Union Queensland secretary Ben Swan, who represents many of the QNI workers, said: “The AWU asks whether the sacrifice of 237 jobs in Townsville has been worth Mr Wang’s election to high office. ­Although history will be the ultimate arbiter, we suggest not.”

Fellow senator Glenn Lazarus, who quit PUP to become an independent in March last year, said he felt “like shit” having learned the extent of QNI’s donations to PUP.

Scott Morrison said Mr Palmer was running “a very shabby, very shabby show”.

“At the last election, Clive Palmer ran around, putting out what he thought was simple answers to very complex problems and people put him on trust and they voted for him. Now, it has all fallen apart,” the Treasurer told Sydney’s 2GB radio station, adding: “If it is too good to be true, it usually is.”

Mr Palmer’s flagship company Mineralogy also funnelled into the party more than $3.6m in royalties from its estranged Chinese business partners. Mr Palmer personally donated $2000 to the party, which paid him $157,333.

The PUP financial return was signed off by the party’s national director, Clive Mensink, on Oct­ober 15, 2015. Mr Mensink, Mr Palmer’s nephew, was also a director and company secretary of QNI at the time of the donations.

Comparison of the party’s state and federal disclosures reveals some of the sums QNI provided match perfectly with bills PUP says it paid contractors for campaign expenses, strongly suggesting the money originated with QNI.

Those include $22,094 to printing company Styleprint in November 2014, an $18,040 bill to charter plane service Global Jet Express in September 2014, $4455 to communications company Pitney Bowes in January 2015, and $2894 for accommodation at the Country Comfort Wild Scotsman Motor Inn in the Queensland town of Gin Gin in May last year.

PUP spent $220,000 on wage and salary payments. On January 27, 2015, days before the Queensland election, QNI donated the same amount to the party.

It cannot be confirmed whether the QNI donation was used to pay for PUP wages.

In total, more than $1.5m of QNI’s money was spent during the January 2015 Queensland state election campaign, at which no PUP candidate was elected. So far this financial year, QNI has donated more than $288,000 to PUP.

In 2013-14 — during which time the federal election was held — QNI donated more than $15m to PUP.

Affidavits sworn by Palmer Group chief financial officer Daren Wolfe in November last year — and filed in Mineralogy’s WA Federal Court battle against the Chinese companies over unpaid royalties — show Mineralogy is also financially stricken.

Mr Wolfe claimed the majority of Mineralogy’s revenue came from its estranged Chinese ­business partners in the form of royalties.

In 2014-15, it brought in revenue of just $3.7m: $2m in royalties, $1.2m in port and camp occupation fees, and $500,000 in other income.

It ended the financial year “cash poor” with just $491,899 in its bank account.

Despite Mr Wolfe swearing to the Federal Court in November that Mineralogy would be forced to sack staff and cancel litigation if it didn’t receive a swift cash injection, Mineralogy had spent $3.6m in financial year 2014-15 to donate to PUP.

Mineralogy’s total expenses were $29.4m, which Mr Wolfe said were mainly mineral exploration costs, rents and rates, wages, consultants, payments to government authorities and legal, accounting and communications expenses. He did not mention political donations.

Mineralogy appears to have paid $30,140 to Advertising Advantage on January 1, 2015, for television ads, $5,473 to Price­waterhouseCoopers on June 3, 2015, and more than $20,000 to Queensland Regional Broad­casters and Southern Cross Austereo for advertising in the week before the Queensland poll.

The resources magnate’s ailing Coolum resort was also generous. It donated $191,113 to PUP, which included a $29,018 splurge on Sunshine Coast radio advertising ahead of the January election, and more than $4000 on Avis rental cars in the final week of the campaign.

Mr Palmer did not respond to questions from The Australian.

Additional reporting: Rosie Lewis