Collapsed Queensland Nickel refinery insolvency administrators are expected to give evidence at a trial hearing liquidators’ claims for $200 million.

July 25, 2019

Administrators for Clive Palmer’s collapsed Queensland Nickel refinery are expected to be the next witnesses at a massive trial to hear liquidators’ claims against the billionaire businessman.

They’re trying to claw back about $200 million in the Brisbane Supreme Court, money they say was owed to creditors when the Townsville refinery shut down in early 2016.

A team of special liquidators is also tasked with recovering almost $70 million in taxpayer funds used to cover unpaid entitlements to about 800 workers, who were let go.

Mr Palmer’s legal team has spent most of the trial attempting to blunt a cutting expert report into the mining magnate’s Galilee Basin coal assets, which found it was next to worthless.

The China First Coal Project is important to the trial because QN allegedly signed a multimillion-dollar deal with its parent company days before the refinery went into administration.

The liquidator’s legal team described the deal as extraordinary because it allegedly paid Mr Palmer $235 million from QN ahead of workers if the insolvent refinery went into administration.

Justice Debra Mullins says when QN actually became insolvent is the most critical issue in the trial.

She’s also tasked with assessing if a reasonable person would have signed the deal QN did with the mining company.

On Thursday, the trial is expecting to hear evidence from the insolvency administrators, who were called to the refinery as the ink was drying on the agreement.