Entitlements for former Queensland Nickel workers will be transferred to a trust account so payments can be made, Clive Palmer says.

April 24, 2019

Unpaid entitlements Clive Palmer promised to pay workers laid off from his Townsville nickel refinery three years ago are being put into a trust account.

The billionaire businessman last week said he would cover the $7.16 million still owed to former employees of Queensland Nickel once the federal election was over. 

At the Queensland Senate ballot draw in Brisbane on Wednesday, Mr Palmer said the funds were being paid into a trust account so payments could be made.

“We’re paying $7 million today into the trust account of a solicitor to administer the scheme and pay the workers as soon as they can,” he told reporters.

“So we will have signed a cheque or put $7 million in the bank.”

Queensland Nickel’s website last week said it would start making payments from May 21, days after the federal election in which Mr Palmer hopes to win him a Senate seat.

Mr Palmer said $66 million paid to former workers by the federal government should be paid by the administrators, who wound up the refinery.

“That money is in the court, that money should be paid by the administrator who did a terrible job (and) sacked thousands of people,” he said.

“We offered to keep them employed and keep it going.”

Mr Palmer’s nephew, Clive Mensink, made 218 workers redundant just three days before he placed Queensland Nickel into voluntary administration in 2016.

It owed about $300 million in debts at the time.

Efforts to recover hundreds of millions of dollars owed by Queensland Nickel continue in court.

A trial to hear those claims has been set down for July 15.

Mr Palmer is now trying to get the Yabulu refinery back up and running, at a time when the price of nickel is rising.