Clive Palmer has been asked why he wrote in pencil for six years in an out-of-date notebook he used to record decisions he made about Queensland Nickel, which collapsed in January.
The federal court heard Palmer’s handwritten edicts included granting himself the authority to give written or oral orders to QN management about how to deal with all property in the refinery venture, even after he “retired” from business to enter parliament.
The former Fairfax MP arrived with personal security guards at the court in Brisbane on Friday for his first day of questioning under oath in an examination of QN’s liquidation.
The company was left owing about $300m, with the dismissal of almost 800 workers forcing the commonwealth to step in and cover about $65m in entitlements.
But all assets from the refinery venture managed by QN are held by two parent companies wholly-owned by Palmer.
In a stint on the witness stand in which he occasionally invoked his right to privilege from self-incrimination, Palmer agreed he, as chairman and secretary of a “joint venture owner’s committee”, was able to pass resolutions affecting the venture by simply writing down minutes in a notebook.
Palmer said he took the 2001-dated notebook out of his “top drawer” at random days after he bought the Townsville refinery in 2009 and then took it almost everywhere he went.
This was “because I’ve got an active mind and if I thought something was good for the business I’d write it down”.
The court heard Palmer signed off on resolutions with his own signature three times to represent his then directorships in all three joint venture companies.
“I’d have an idea and jotted it down and it became a resolution,” Palmer said.
Palmer said he retained the authority to direct QN in regard to “joint venture property” – including all cash and assets – even after resigning as a director of the company after his election to federal parliament in 2013.
However, he denied being “heavily involved” in the business.
Asked by Tom Sullivan, a lawyer acting for the commonwealth-appointed special purpose liquidator, why he only wrote in pencil in the book, Palmer said he had randomly picked up a pencil for its first entry, “stuck it in the spiral of the notebook” and used it thereafter.
Asked whether he used that same pencil for the next six years, Palmer said: “Oh, I didn’t know.”
Asked where he was on the day of a notebook entry in August 2009, Palmer said he “could be anywhere in the world”.
“I had a jet, I could fly to Europe. I could fly to Paraguay, if I wanted to, I could take the book with me.”
Liquidators in the hearing probing for evidence of whether or not Palmer acted as a de facto director of the failed company, which could expose him to civil or criminal liabilities if the company was also proven to have traded while insolvent.
Palmer said the terms of a joint venture agreement for the refinery business had given a “joint venture owners committee” authority over the spending decisions of QN management since before he took over the business.
But an entry in his notebook in 2009 had the effect of giving him “sole authority” to give oral or written directions, the court heard.
The joint venture committee consisted only of Palmer and his nephew Clive Mensink, a director of the trio of joint venture companies.
Palmer said his reasons for first quitting as director of Queensland Nickel in 2013 were around his decision to enter politics, motivated by two key factors: his falling out with the then Queensland premier, Campbell Newman, and his desire to defeat a proposed federal carbon tax which would hurt his nickel business.
“I didn’t like Campbell Newman and I wanted to be involved in political activity to get rid of him,” Palmer said.
Palmer said Queenland Nickel faced a “projected $75m” liability under the proposed carbon tax which meant the refinery “wouldn’t have a future”.
Palmer told the court he had last spoken to Mensink by phone last week, when his nephew was in Berlin.
They did not discuss when Mensink would be returning to Australia, Palmer said.
