Palmer’s staff, creditors in 11th-hour refinery session

Queensland Nickel’s 800 sacked workers and 700 trade creditors have been called to an emergency meeting today.

 

Queensland Nickel’s 800 sacked workers and 700 trade creditors have been called to an emergency meeting in Townsville today as part of an 11th-hour attempt to keep Clive Palmer’s crippled Yabul­u refinery afloat.

The meeting, organised by investment consulting firm Sister City Partners, is to put forward a community buyback offer for the refinery. SCP chairman Warwick Powell said the business was “losing­ money hand over fist and without a restructure it doesn’t stand a chance’’.

“We are in a position to engage seriously with Mr Palmer and the outcome is absolutely vital to the future of the refinery and for the region,’’ Mr Powell told The Australian.

The meeting comes as the administr­ators for QNI Pty Ltd, FTI Consulting, revealed last night that Mr Palmer had rejected their offer to sell three shipments of ore needed to keep the refinery operational.

The ore is due to arrive­ at the Townsville port tomorrow.

A clearer picture is also now emerging of the cost of cleaning up Mr Palmer’s mess.

The administrators estimate $60 million is needed for entitlements, to cover the 550 workers sacked on Friday and the 237 made redundant in January.

About $100m is owed to 700 unsecured creditors. Aurizon is the largest creditor and is owed $20m. The Australian Taxation Office is owed $5m, and the cost for the environmental clean-up could be as high as $300m.

Mr Palmer, the federal MP for the Sunshine Coast-based seat of Fairfax, claimed yesterday it would take up to eight weeks for new ore shipments to arrive, but a spokesman for FTI Consulting dismissed the claim.

The administrators have offered to sell ore shipments which they ordered in January to Mr Palmer’s company, Queensland Nickel Sales. The shipments from New Caledonia and The Philippines are en route to Townsville.

The ore, estimated to be worth $1, became an asset of QNI Pty Ltd after FTI was unexpectedly removed as the manager of the refinery­ last Monday. “We have repeatedly offered the ore for sale and Queensland Nickel Sales have told us they don’t want it,’’ the FTI Consulting spokesman said.

Speaking on the ABC’s Insiders program, Mr Palmer threat­ened to take his money offshore if the Queensland government continued its “get Clive Palmer” campaign.

Premier Annastacia Palasz­czuk hit back, saying departmental heads had repeatedly asked him what approvals were needed. She said he had replied he didn’t know and would get back to them.

Environmental approval was transferred to QNS on Friday but The Australian understands Mr Palmer has yet to file the approp­riate documents needed to secure a major hazard licence.

Under the community buyback offer, an independent board of directors would work with retrenche­d senior management on a restructure of the refinery.

A portion of workers would be rehired “on merit”.

Sacked workers would be able to make claims under the federal government’s Fair Entitlements Guarantee but unsecured creditors, including rail company Aurizon, would be left to hope that a secret asset could still be uncovere­d in QNI Pty Ltd’s ruins.

Creditors will have the chance to vote on whether the company should be liquidated at a meeting due to be held on April 15.