LNP to keep Clive Palmer donation

The Queensland LNP will not refund $500,000 donated by Clive Palmer’s troubled Queensland Nickel in 2010.

The Liberal National Party of Queensland will not refund $500,000 donated by Clive ­Palmer’s troubled Queensland Nickel in 2010, despite hectoring from the businessman and MP.

Politicians of all stripes have criticised Mr Palmer for allowing his stricken Queensland Nickel company — which laid off 237 workers and collapsed into voluntary administration last month — to donate more than $21 million to his political vehicle, the Palmer United Party, in just two years.

In a letter to Malcolm Turnbull this week, Mr Palmer took exception to the criticism over the donations. “There has been substantial comment by your ministers that raised the question whether a private family-owned company, which is certified as being fully solvent, has the right to donate funds to the political party of its choosing,” he wrote.

“As you should be aware, in the years prior to 2013, the political party which you lead was the beneficiary of substantial donations from Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd. I have heard no such criticism in respect to those donations.”

QNI made one donation, of $500,000, to the LNP in 2010. An LNP spokesman said: “The party will not be refunding the ­donation made in 2010.’’