FIFO family wants some answers from Clive Palmer

The wife of a sacked Queensland Nickel worker wants Clive Palmer to explain why he has been forced to leave for weeks at a time.

08 March 2016 Townsville, Qld - Darelle Baker with children Bradley, 18, Maddie, 14, Poppi-Ann, 5 and Chase, 4. Darelle's husband Nathan who was an apprentice fitter & turner at Queensland Nickel was sacked in the first round of job cuts - Photo: Cameron Laird (Ph: 0418 238811 [e-mail])

The wife of a sacked Queensland Nickel worker wants Clive Palmer to explain to her children why their father has been forced to leave them for weeks at a time.

Darelle Baker is furious she and others are left to parent alone while their husbands fly to mining and gas sites far away.

As she juggled school pick-ups and sports drop-offs for her five children yesterday, Mrs Baker said life had fallen apart since her husband Nathan was made redundant during a family holiday in January.

Mr Baker had thought a redundancy payout would protect his family financially for at least six months but when QNI was placed in administration, he and 236 others were left to fend for themselves. He looked at the city’s job prospects, decided he could not face a Centrelink queue and took minimum-wage work as a processor at a copper mine at Cloncurry, 750km west of Townsville.

He was at work on Monday night when his wife heard Mr Palmer had found a way to regain control of Queensland Nickel. “I ... thought ‘how can he even get away with this?’,” she said. “I’m sitting here with my kids who are asking ‘when’s daddy going to be home?’ I have to tell them he won’t be home for 15 more sleeps and meanwhile this man, who couldn’t find a cent when we were being shown the door, has suddenly found $23 million because he realised he was going to lose something that still had the potential to once again be a money pit.”

Becoming a fly-in, fly-out family was never the plan for the Bakers, who left Brisbane six years ago and headed north so their children could enjoy a better quality of life.

Mr Baker started an apprenticeship as a fitter and turner and boilermaker at the Yabulu refinery and shook hands with Mr Palmer, who said “how proud he was keeping so many people off the dole”. He was one of several sacked apprentices who were worried that even if QNI were liquidated, they would not have a claim under the federal Fair Entitlements Guarantee. However, a Department of Employment spokeswoman last night said an employee’s status as an apprentice was not itself a basis for being excluded and “a range of factors” would be considered.