Billionaire businessman Clive Palmer has settled most of a $200 million lawsuit over the collapse of Queensland Nickel.

August 5, 2019

Clive Palmer has settled another massive chunk of his $200 million lawsuit over the collapse of Queensland Nickel, including repaying $66 million in taxpayer funds used to pay sacked workers.

The deal is understood to be worth about $110 million and provides for the full repayment of the Commonwealth’s money, which was used to cover workers’ entitlements when the Townsville refinery was shut in 2016.

It also secures the full recovery for the majority of unsecured creditors, plus all other outstanding employee entitlements, special purpose liquidator Stephen Parbery said in a statement late on Monday.

The breakthrough follows settlement of an $88 million Aurizon claim on Thursday after days of talks between the billionaire businessman and the liquidators outside the Brisbane Supreme Court trial, where the claims were being heard.

Despite the progress being made resolving the three-year stand-off, Mr Palmer was absent from the court and has not made an admission following news of the settlements.

The last time he attended was on Tuesday when he told Justice Mullins he needed to take a day off 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 the Palmer team’s payment plan for their rail transport debts and threatened to suspend its services.

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

The trial continues on Thursday to hear the remainder of the general-purpose liquidators’ claims, which are understood to be worth more than $100 million.