Clive Palmer’s $18 million deal to settle the largest Queensland Nickel liquidator’s claim against him hasn’t been followed with an expected second concession.

August 2, 2019

Expectations of Clive Palmer making a second deal with Queensland Nickel’s liquidators, following his agreement to pay $18 million in rail transport debts, have yet to be realised.

On Thursday, the billionaire businessman made his first concession during his $200 million battle against liquidators in the Brisbane Supreme Court, following the Townsville refinery’s collapse in 2016.

The mining magnate, who has previously said he has “a moral responsibility” to fight liquidators, agreed to pay $18 million to settle an $88 million claim for Aurizon’s unpaid rail transport fees, the largest creditor claim against him.

The news of the Aurizon claim breakthrough was swiftly followed by a lawyer for the liquidators, Shane Doyle, saying they “hoped to advance” other issues between them and the defendants in overnight talks.

But on Friday, as the massive nine-week trial continued, there was no mention of a second settlement..

Mr Palmer was again a no show at the court and no statement regarding the ongoing talks has been made by the former federal MP.

He’s been absent since Tuesday, when he told Justice Debra Mullins he needed to take a day off from the trial to brief an expert witness, who is expected to testify that QN wasn’t trading insolvently in the months before Mr Palmer’s team called in administrators.

The court has previously heard that as the refinery hurtled towards collapse in late 2015, the ailing company was $25 million in the red and losing $5 million more each month with creditors circling.

The refinery’s debt-riddled predicament came to a head in January 2016 when Aurizon rejected Mr Palmer’s team’s payment plan for their rail transport debts and threatened to suspend its services.

QN then entered voluntary administration, which ultimately led to the refinery closing three months later.