Clive Palmer’s nephew ordered home to face Queensland Nickel grilling

Clive Mensink has been summoned back to Australia to be grilled over the collapse of Queensland Nickel.

Clive Mensink is the sole director of Queensland Nickel.

Clive Palmer’s gallivanting nephew Clive Mensink has been summoned back to Australia to be grilled at new Federal Court hearings into the collapse of Queensland Nickel.

But despite a court registrar ordering him to testify in Brisbane next month, The Australian understands Mr Mensink has told liquidators he won’t cut short his overseas holiday before his planned return to Australia in July, unless they pay his expenses.

The sole director of the Townsville company — which cost nearly 800 people their jobs when it folded last year under $300 million in debts — has been ordered to disclose reams of personal and corporate documents, including details of his correspondence with his uncle and Mr Palmer’s alias, Terry Smith.

Mr Mensink has been holidaying overseas since at least last June, with Mr Palmer telling a Federal Court examination in September that his nephew was “up towards the Arctic” on a cruise from Berlin to St Petersburg. It is not known where Mr Mensink is now, but Queensland Nickel’s two sets of liquidators are stepping up efforts to question Mr Mensink about the company collapse.

Last month the special purpose liquidators, PPB Advisory — appointed by the federal government to claw back nearly $70m in public funds to cover QN workers’ redundancy entitlements — successfully applied to the Federal Court for permission to serve Mr Mensink in absentia.

Registrar Heather Baldwin ordered that Mr Mensink no longer needed to be personally served with a summons to appear at court. She required PPB ­instead to send the document to Mr Palmer’s Brisbane headquarters, Mineralogy House, and to lawyers who have acted for the Palmer group.

The summons requires Mr Mensink to appear in court on February 22 and to produce originals or photocopies of dozens of documents. He is required to disclose telephone records and other documents showing communications with Mr Palmer, or Terry Smith. He must produce all evidence relating to hiring and firing of QN employees.

Mr Mensink has been ordered to provide detailed information about his personal financial position from January 2015, including personal tax returns, bank statements and evidence of all assets and liabilities over $10,000.

General purpose liquidators FTI Consulting will apply to the Federal Court today for a similar order allowing them to serve Mr Mensink with a summons while he is still overseas.

FTI has already secured more public examination dates in February, when Mr Palmer will again be questioned under oath, this time by former Queensland solicitor general Walter Sofronoff QC. Ex-Queensland Nickel chief financial officer Daren Wolfe is expected to again to be called.

Mr Mensink left Australia last year, without liquidators serving him with a summons to appear at a public examination.

It is understood he has told liquidators his trip was prearranged and he is not scheduled to return to Australia until July.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk yesterday criticised reports Mr Palmer was seeking a coal mining lease on his Mamelon cattle property in central Queensland, which liquidators tried and failed to sell last year.

“Fundamentally he should be focused on (Queensland Nickel) first and foremost before he focuses on anything else,” Ms ­Palaszczuk said in Brisbane.