Pay me to fly to court, Clive Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink demands

Clive Palmer’s nephew Clive Mensink wants taxpayers to pay for him to fly from London to answer questions.

Clive Palmer’s globetrotting neph­ew Clive Mensink has demanded taxpayers and liquidators pay for him to fly back from London­ to answer questions under oath about the collapse of Queensland Nickel.

Mr Mensink — the sole direct­or of the Townsville refinery company when it collapsed under $300 million in debts, costing 800 jobs last year — has been ordered to testify at a public examination in the Federal Court in Brisbane today, and on February 22.

Court documents show he has been on a “round world excursion (sic)” since June last year and argue that it is “not reasonable” for him to cut short his overseas itinerary without reimbursement.

“Should (the liquidators) not wish to wait until he arrives back in the country (in July) then the alter­native is that (the liquidators) pay for Mr Mensink’s return flights from London to Brisbane plus hotel costs plus costs for loss of opportunity on his itinerary and proposed business meetings overseas,” Mr Mensink’s solicitor, Sam Iskander, wrote last month to solicitor­ Wayne Jenvey, for genera­l-­purpose liquidator FTI Consulting.

The Australian understands Mr Mensink has made similar demand­s of special-purpose liquid­ator PPB Advisory, which is being funded by federal taxpayers to claw back $70m in redundancy entitlements for workers.

If Mr Mensink does not turn up at court today without a reasonable explanation, the Federal Court has the discretion to issue an arrest warrant.

Yesterday, Mr Iskander told The Australian he had “no idea” where in the world Mr Mensink was, but confirmed he was still overseas. “He moves around a lot,” he said. He had no indication Mr Mensink was planning to attend today’s public examination into the Queensland Nickel collapse.

When liquidators first attempt­ed to serve Mr Mensink in June last year, he was in Hong Kong. He scolded them for not serving him with the summons before he left the country.

“I intend visiting family members­ in Europe,” Mr Mensink wrote in June, in documents tender­ed to the Supreme Court in recent days. “I am currently on a round world excursion (sic) and when I know my return dates, I will endeavour to contact you.”

Former QN chief financial offic­er Daren Wolfe is scheduled to be cross-examined today by former­ Queensland solicitor-general­ Walter Sofronoff QC, acting for FTI Consulting.

Mr Palmer yesterday launched an 11th-hour attempt to escape testifying next week, saying his summons to appear was “inconvenient”. Judge John Reeves reserved his decision, but not before he told Mr Palmer’s lawyers: “Tell (him) he has an obligation … as a person appearing before this court to abide by the overarching purpose­s … to conduct things efficientl­y and co-­operatively’’.

Mr Palmer was to testify today, but arranged a delay to attend a ­funeral tomorrow.

His wife, Anna, was served on Monday with a summons to testify and hand over documents. The court heard that she quit as direct­or of Mineralogy hours after she received the ­notice.