Clive Palmer has washed his hands of Queensland Nickel, saying he has retired, as 237 ex-workers wait to hear if they will get redundancy payouts.
PRESSURE is mounting on self-proclaimed billionaire Clive Palmer to meet with affected workers at his embattled north Queensland nickel refinery.
Or, at the very least, address them publicly.
Queensland Nickel’s (QNI) directors on Monday appointed voluntary administrators, from FTI consulting, to go over the company’s books just days after 237 workers at its Yabulu refinery, near Townsville, were made redundant.
Question marks remain over whether workers laid off on Friday will get their redundancy payouts, with administrators set to investigate.
And despite directors of QNI holding crisis talks with the state government, Mr Palmer has been notably silent on the refinery’s struggles, leaving the talking to his nephew, QNI managing director Clive Mensink.
Mr Mensink insists QNI will be able to trade its way out of administration.
“From our perspective it is business as usual and employees of QNI will continue productivity at this difficult time,” he said in a statement.
Clive Palmer's home on Sovereign Islands on the Gold Coast, with his multi-million dollar boat Maximus moored outside. Picture: Lyndon Mechielsen/The AustralianSource:News Corp Australia
Mr Palmer made one comment on Twitter in the form of a political retort against Townsville-based federal MP Ewen Jones, who suggested QNI should pay back donations made to Palmer United Party.
“@EwenJonesMP and @LiberalAus have not refunded any of the donations that #QNI gave to the @LiberalAus. Jones is a hypocrite,” Mr Palmer tweeted at the weekend.
He made no mention of the sacked workers or the remaining 550 employees still concerned about their fate. And when asked about the company going into voluntary administration by the Courier Mail, Mr Palmer said: “I’m retired. I’m not in business at all. You will have to get in contact with the company”.
Senator Glenn Lazarus, who spoke on Radio National this morning about the Palmer United Party, said Mr Palmer could have saved the jobs of the 237 Queensland workers if he wanted to.
Mr Lazarus was a member of the Palmer United Party when it received about $20 million in political donations from Mr Palmer’s Queensland Nickel business.
The now independent senator says Mr Palmer could have sold off some of his asset to save the troubled business, but didn’t.
Palmer’s net worth was estimated by Forbes magazine to be US$550 million as of January 2014, while the BRW magazine estimated his wealth at A$1.22 billion as of June 2014.
The Queensland Nickel refinery owned by Clive Palmer made 237 staff redundant while another 550 remain to keep the plant running.Source:News Corp Australia
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk said senior bureaucrats were holding urgent talks with QNI representatives on Monday afternoon, but Mr Palmer wouldn't be present.
When asked whether Mr Palmer should personally face the Townsville community and the 237 workers who lost their jobs, Ms Palaszczuk replied: “Absolutely”.
The premier will travel to Townsville this week to meet with community leaders and discuss her plan to fast-track capital infrastructure spending in the region to tackle unemployment.
"I need to be on the ground to look at those issues first-hand," Ms Palaszczuk said.
She said she was trying to speak with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull to ask him to speed up federal funding commitments made in the state's north.
The premier said the government would also be looking closely at what the administrators found at QNI.
The government last month rejected Mr Palmer's request to guarantee a $35 million loan to help the cash-strapped refinery contend with a 15-year low in nickel prices because it refused to open its books for investigation.
‘It’s time to meet the workers, Clive.’ Picture: Adam Smith
Opposition Leader Lawrence Springborg agreed that it was not the role of the state government to provide QNI with assistance.
"I'm at one with the government with regards to that," he said.
"But what we should expect of this government is a pipeline of projects in the north, so as employment opportunities do come to an end, we do have other options available for people.
"Government has got to be an enabler; it shouldn't necessarily be interventionist, but it has to be an enabler."
AWU Queensland branch secretary Ben Swan said there was now a cloud over the remaining 550 employees at the refinery, which was Townsville's largest private employer.
"This has been a very troubling time for all workers at that site," Mr Swan told AAP.
"And for the next couple of months ... it will be a very angst-ridden time where people are concerned about their futures and their livelihoods."
Mr Palmer has not responded to AAP's repeated requests for comment.
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