Clive Palmer’s nephew faces threat of arrest warrant

Federal Court judge suggests Clive Mensink would be better off coming home if, as claimed, he has depression.

Clive Mensink, the nephew of Clive Palmer, is thought to be in the US.

A Federal Court judge has suggested globetrotting Clive Mensink might be better off returning to Australia as he claims he is suffering from clinical depression and major anxiety.

Justice John Dowsett will today consider whether to issue an arrest warrant for Mr Mensink, who has failed to turn up to testify in a public examination about the collapse of Queensland Nickel at the Federal Court in Brisbane as ordered.

Barrister Alex Nelson, for Mr Mensink, said his client was still overseas and had medical advice from the Boston Medical Centre that he was suffering from clinical depression and major anxiety.

Justice Dowsett said: “It might be better if he came home, wouldn’t it?”

He suggested that Mr Mensink’s medical certificate did not say he could not come back to Australia, and said the holidaying executive could get medical evidence in Australia and then Justice Dowsett could decide if he were fit to testify.

The court heard Mr Mensink was in Boston when he swore an affidavit on January 31.

“It’s unclear where he is now,” Mr de Jersey told Justice Dowsett.

Mr Mensink’s barrister Mr Nelson said Mr Mensink was hard to contact.

Mr Nelson: “I am told communication is difficult.”

Justice Dowsett: “With the US? With Boston?

Mr Nelson: “No, with him.”

Justice Dowsett: “My experience is that communication with people overseas, they are as easy to find as they want to be.”

Mr Nelson: “Probably true.”

Asked what was believed to have triggered his client’s depression, Mr Nelson said it might have been the publicity surrounding Queensland Nickel’s demise. Or, it could have been his divorce in 2015, Mr Nelson said.

Clive Mensink was in Boston on January 31. Liquidators don't know where precisely he is now, court hears. #qldnickel

— Sarah Elks (@sarahelks) February 23, 2017

Mensink arrest “could be tricky”

Earlier, the court warned it could be difficult to serve an arrest warrant on Mr Mensink because he’s still missing overseas.

Special purpose liquidators PPB Advisory — trying to claw back $70 million in taxpayer funds used to pay redundancy ­entitlements for sacked Queensland Nickel workers — slammed Mr Mensink for refusing to return to Australia to testify.

“Mr Mensink has shown ­absolute contempt in not appearing today,” barrister David de Jersey, for PPB Advisory, told the Federal Court yesterday. He described Mr Mensink’s excuses for his absence — a claim he was depressed and would be too stressed to appear in court — as “unmeritorious entirely”.

Mr Mensink, Mr Palmer’s nephew, was the sole formal ­director of his Townsville ­refinery company when it collapsed under $300m in debts last year, leaving nearly 800 workers jobless. He is on a months-long overseas jaunt — featuring multiple luxury cruises — and has shirked two Federal Court summonses demanding he cut his holiday short to be quizzed in Brisbane.

PPB Advisory will ask Federal Court judge John Dowsett to issue an arrest warrant for Mr Mensink today. Federal Court registrar Murray Belcher yesterday said it could be hard to serve. “Mr Mensink is overseas. If a warrant was issued, there’s some difficulty … in executing that,” he said.

Barrister Alex Nelson, for Mr Mensink, promised to hand over a “more thorough” medical certificate to the court to explain his absence. Mr Nelson said the globetrotting executive was not in contempt of court “if he has a reasonable excuse for not ­appearing”.

Liquidators have been told Mr Mensink “doesn’t seem to have an intention” of returning to Australia until the middle of the year.

Mr Mensink’s own solicitor, Sam Iskander, says he does not know where his client is, while his uncle, Mr Palmer, insists he knows only that he is in the northern hemisphere.

The Australian revealed on Tuesday that Mr Mensink was a passenger on a luxury 24-day cruise over Christmas and New Year from Chile to Argentina, via Antarctica. He is now believed to be in the US.

Mr Mensink — the former managing director of Queensland Nickel, ostensibly in charge of day-to-day operations at the refinery — left the country in June last year. He alleges he ­waited for weeks for liquidators to serve him with a summons, but when they didn’t, he left on the planned marathon trip.