Palmer ‘can’t recall’ $12m spend during election campaign

CLIVE Palmer is distancing himself from two cheques totalling $12.167m of Chinese funds spent during his election campaign.

PUP leader Clive Palmer addresses the National Press Club in Canberra yesterday. Picture: Gary Ramage

CLIVE Palmer is distancing himself from two cheques totalling $12.167 million of Chinese funds spent during his party’s federal election campaign, telling journalists yesterday he “could not recall” being personally responsible for the huge withdrawals.

The leader of the Palmer ­United Party responded to direct questions at the National Press Club about whether he had written the cheques, for $10m and $2.167m, by saying “I can’t recall”.

Mr Palmer acknowledged the $2.167m, which has been traced in Supreme Court documents as having gone to Brisbane company Media Circus Network just days before the election, was probably spent on “advertising”.

“I don’t know, if it went to Media Circus it would have been to pay for advertising but Mineralogy’s got the right to do that,’’ Mr Palmer said, adding that he owned Mineralogy, his flagship company.

While Mr Palmer has no memory of the two cheques, the amounts dwarfed every cheque drawn on the Perth-based National Australia Bank account, called “Port Palmer Operations”, of which Mr Palmer was its sole ­signatory.

Formal contracts and deeds stipulate the funds could be used only to run an iron ore port.

The Chinese suspect their millions of dollars have been taken wrongfully and used to bankroll the success of the Palmer United Party in the election. Mr Palmer has strenuously denied any wrongdoing and described the ­allegations as an “invention”.

Asked by The Australian in Canberra whether he had signed the two cheques, Mr Palmer said: “I’ve got no recollection. I can’t tell you. I can’t recall. If I can’t recall, it means I can’t recall. But it’s not a significant matter at all. It’s just not true what you’re writing.”

Asked later by the ABC whether he would be going back to confirm “if you signed the cheques”, Mr Palmer replied: “Probably, but that’s no big deal.”

Mr Palmer told the press club: “If it was true, someone could make a complaint about me to anybody and they could investigate me. There are no actions against me personally, there are no complaints, there’s just the wrath of The Australian, which I can bear.”

Supreme Court records show there are complaints and actions against Mr Palmer personally, with the resources tycoon and others from Mineralogy compelled by legal orders and subpoenas to answer questions and provide documents to explain the missing funds to the Chinese and a judge in ­secret arbitration proceedings.

The seriousness of the case, which is being briefed at the highest levels of the Chinese government in Beijing, means it is likely to end up with police.

Queensland Premier Campbell Newman has expressed surprise that police are not already examining the documents.

Mr Palmer yesterday hit back at Mr Newman, calling him a “Nazi” with a “Gestapo”.

The documents examined by The Australian show the Chinese funds were meant to be used only in the operation of the China-funded port of Cape Preston, a West Australian export hub for iron ore extracted from tenements owned by Mr Palmer.

Formal deeds and legal letters show the Chinese put money in the port “administration fund” and it was meant to be strictly controlled and accounted by Mineralogy, which should not have had port expenses as it was not running the port.

Mr Palmer yesterday said the Chinese funds were his to use: “It’s not the Chinese bank account, it’s the Mineralogy bank account, and it was paid for at the direction of our companies.”

Court documents show one of his companies returned more than $12m to the account last May, nine months after the first withdrawal of $10m, and a few days after The Australian revealed that lawyers for the China-owned Citic Pacific company had told the Federal Court of wrongful and ­“illegit-imate’’ siphoning of its cash.

“So this is just a furphy, it’s an allegation,’’ Mr Palmer said. “There’s nothing wrong with it. It’s just because I’m Clive Palmer, we hold the balance of power and ­people don’t like it — least of all Rupert Murdoch.”

His responses suggest he regarded the Chinese funds in the Mineralogy-controlled account as his to spend on what he wanted, including PUP’s election campaign.

But these responses are different to those in court documents lodged by his lawyers, which indicate that the funds were spent operating the port of Cape Preston under a port services agreement.

Mr Palmer acknowledged the port role in one of his responses yesterday: “If you want a true answer about it, it was that we had an obligation to provide port services. Our company, Queensland Nickel, provided those services and was paid for them. They were no longer Chinese funds. That’s all I can tell you. I can’t get into a discussion with you about a matter that’s biased with The Australian.”