Clive Palmer fails in push to dismiss $12m criminal charge

Clive Palmer has lost a Supreme Court challenge to stop a criminal case accusing him of dishonestly using approximately $12 million.

Businessman and former politician Clive Palmer. Picture: The Australian

Mining magnate and former MP Clive Palmer has lost a bid in Queensland’s Supreme Court to stop a criminal case accusing him of dishonestly using approximately $12 million.

Supreme Court judge Glenn Martin ruled Queensland’s highest court had no power to review the matter.

In a decision handed down last week, Justice Martin found the Supreme Court could not hear Mr Palmer’s judicial review application because a magistrate’s original ruling was made under federal law.

The judgment relates to the third of three criminal complaints filed in 2020 by the Australian Securities and Investments Commission, alleging Mr Palmer breached the Corporations Act.

The third complaint, aimed solely at Mr Palmer, accuses him of dishonestly withdrawing about $12 million from a company account for the benefit of another.

Mr Palmer had attempted to have the complaint dismissed before committal, arguing it was legally flawed.

Brisbane Magistrate Cameron McKenzie rejected that argument in August last year, ruling the Magistrates Court could not summarily dismiss the charge under the Justices Act because the case involved the exercise of federal jurisdiction under Commonwealth law.

Mr Palmer sought to amend his application to raise constitutional and cross-vesting grounds and requested the matter be transferred to the Federal Court. Picture: The Courier-Mail

Mr Palmer then took the matter to the Supreme Court, lodging a judicial review application and arguing the magistrate’s ruling was legally wrong and an abuse of process.

As part of that application, he sought to add new legal arguments based on constitutional law and cross-vesting provisions, and asked for the matter to be transferred to the Federal Court of Australia.

But on June 5, Justice Martin dismissed the bulk of Mr Palmer’s case, finding that state judicial review laws did not apply to proceedings heard under federal legislation.

He also rejected Mr Palmer’s argument that the Justices Act gave the court power to intervene.

“This Court is, like the Magistrates Court was, invested with federal jurisdiction because the Commonwealth is a party,” Justice Martin wrote.

Justice Martin said the original order was made under the Judiciary Act and the Corporations Act, not under any Queensland law.

He said the ruling by Magistrate McKenzie was made under the Judiciary Act and reflected the effect of the High Court’s 2023 decision in Huynh, which limited state court oversight in federal jurisdiction matters.”

Justice Martin allowed one part of Mr Palmer’s application, which involved a legal issue under the Corporations Act, to be transferred to the Federal Court because it fell within federal civil jurisdiction.

“It is, I find, in the interests of justice that an amended application confined to 2C be transferred to the Federal Court,” he said.

The rest of Mr Palmer’s judicial review was dismissed, including arguments that Queensland magistrates are officers of the Commonwealth.

The matter will now proceed in the Federal Court, where Palmer’s lawyers will pursue the single remaining legal ground.

Originally published as Clive Palmer fails in push to dismiss $12m criminal charge