Aaron Bunch Journalist with Australian Associated Press | Collection of published work | + 61 484 008 119 | abunch@aap.com.au
Palmer QN collapse trial resumes
Mining magnate Clive Palmer is set to resume his court battle against liquidators’ claims over the Queensland Nickel collapse.
August 8, 2019
Clive Palmer’s court battle with Queensland Nickel’s liquidators is expected to resume after the billionaire businessman settled a massive chunk of the multi-million claims against him.
Mr Palmer had been defending a $200 million lawsuit brought by two sets of liquidators, following the Townsville refinery’s collapse in 2016.
But in the past week, the former federal MP has settled the majority of the claims, including agreeing to repay $66 million in taxpayer money used to fund entitlements for sacked workers.
He’s now fighting just one team of liquidators over $100 million for a handful of creditor claims related to his company, Mineralogy, and two Galilee Basin mining projects.
The Brisbane Supreme Court trial has previously heard Mineralogy allegedly received loans worth $115 million from the cash-strapped refinery but never repaid them.
A lawyer for the liquidators, Graham Gibson, says in the days before administrators arrived at the ailing refinery, “extraordinary” deals worth $235 million were allegedly signed with China First and Waratah Coal.
The shares in Mr Palmer’s allegedly “worthless” coal projects were of no commercial benefit to QN but allegedly benefited the mining magnate ahead of workers if the company went into administration, he said.
Mr Palmer has also been accused of acting as a shadow director of QN, which allegedly traded insolvently.
He denies the claims, saying they’re baseless.
The trial continues on Thursday.