Clive’s Palmer’s Queensland nickel rescue bid ‘a final insult’

For sacked Queensland Nickel worker Shaun Bramwell, Clive Palmer’s last minute rescue package is a final insult.

Nickel

For sacked Queensland Nickel worker Shaun Bramwell, Clive Palmer’s last-minute rescue package is a final insult in a saga that landed him in a dole queue and unable to pay his mortgage.

Speaking to The Australian with his wife, Angie, at their family home in Ayr, 80km southwest of Townsville, the father of three said he was disgusted but not surprised his former boss had been able to play the “white knight” and keep the refinery open.

“This is what he does ... waits until the last minute ... he never wanted to let the asset go,” Mr Bramwell said. “I’m angry ... I genuinely thought he had run out of money ... looking at him on the news and in photos, he looked tired and stressed but I should have known.”

Since he and 236 colleagues were made redundant in January, days before Queensland Nickel was placed in administration, the only work Mr Bramwell has been able to find is as part-time grinder at a local foundry, earning less than half of his former salary.

The minimum wage is enough to put food on the table but not to cover payments on their home.

Mr Bramwell said he believed he and his fellow ousted colleagues had been forgotten by Mr Palmer, who was “just delaying the inevitable”.

“The workers who are still there will have no choice but to accept the new agreement and work for him, which is what they didn’t want,” he said.

“They say nothing is going to change but I expect he will for sure try and negotiate lower wages and they will just have to cop it … it’s just about him wanting to hold on to it for a bit longer ... Queensland Nickel is not going to make money for a long time and $23 million (which Mr Palmer has been able to secure in credit) doesn’t go far when you are losing $1m a week.”

Having accepted the reality they are unlikely to see their breadwinner’s entitlements any time soon, if ever, the Bramwell family is looking to the cane country around their hometown as a potential saviour. Come May, up to 200 seasonal jobs will be on offer as cane harvesting begins.

Mr Bramwell is grateful to have a job lined up thanks to his wife’s connections with the sugar industry and hopes others will have the same luck.