A meeting for sacked Queensland Nickel workers chaired by broadcaster Alan Jones has called for the company’s liquidation and government support for a community buyback of Clive Palmer’s mothballed refinery.
The meeting in Townsville on Monday pre-empted a report by QN administrators that Guardian Australia understands will recommend creditors vote for liquidation.
Organisers of the Townsville meeting, who secured Jones’ involvement through federal MP Bob Katter, said they were sending food parcels to some workers who could no longer afford everyday expenses while waiting for payouts.
Almost 800 QN employees, who are owed about $74m in entitlements and make up the bulk of creditors, cannot access the commonwealth fair entitlements guarantee until it is in liquidation.
The report by administrators FTI Consulting to be released on Tuesday will also reveal findings by forensic investigators who looked at whether Palmer acted as a “shadow director” by controlling Queensland Nickel investment decisions.
Those questions are the focus of a separate Australian Securities and Investments Commission investigation and a report by ABC’s Four Corners program on Monday night.
If Palmer were found to have acted as a shadow director, he could be exposed to legal action if the company were also found to have traded while insolvent.
The meeting led by Jones called for an “unequivocal guarantee and commitment to financial support of a buyback” by the Queensland and federal government.
“Should the plant close, the aggregate cost to the community could be $100m or more,” Jones said.
The organisation lobbying for the buyback, Sister City Partners, would likely require bank investment through government guarantees that Palmer unsuccessfully lobbied for. It would also have to negotiate directly with Palmer, who continues to own the plant assets through Queensland Nickel parent companies.
Sandra Chesney, from the Queensland Nickel Workers and Community Action Committee which organised the meeting, said the group had distributed food parcels to cash-strapped workers.
“They’re battlers. They can’t pay their rates, they can’t pay their electricity. They can’t even buy food because they can’t access [the Fair Entitlements Guarantee program] until the company goes into liquidation and they never got their holiday pay, severance pay, anything.”
Chesney said the attitude of Queensland Nickel workers was that “Clive Palmer does not exist”.
“Nobody’s mentioning him. They’re moving on, that’s how they see it. They’re backing the community buyback,” Chesny said.
Palmer surprised administrators last month by sacking Queensland Nickel as plant operator after they signalled the refinery would be mothballed because of ongoing trading losses and his refusal of requests for emergency funding.
Palmer owns the refinery separately through Queensland Nickel’s parent companies, which appointed another company Queensland Nickel Sales as the new operator.
But Queensland Nickel Sales has so far failed to carry out a promise to re-employ workers and has maintained the plant with a skeleton staff.
A source said FTI Consulting had no option but to recommend liquidation for Queensland Nickel given its trading losses and the absence of any proposals to restructure the company.
Neither Palmer nor Sister City Partners submitted a deed of company arrangement by the administrators’ deadline.
Creditors are due to formally vote on Queensland Nickael’s fate at another meeting in Townsville on 22 April.
SCP could still engineer a buyback but would have to negotiate with Palmer.
Australian Workers Union Queensland secretary Ben Swan said workers would get a fraction of what they were owed under the federal government’s entitlements scheme.
Four Corners will allege Palmer used the email alias “Terry Smith” to authorise multimillion-dollar spending decisions at Queensland Nickel when he was not a director of the company.
Palmer wrote to ABC managing director Mark Scott to complain before the Four Corners broadcast, which he said contained “factual errors” and would cause him “substantial damage”.
He has claimed to have retired from operating his businesses since entering parliament in 2013.
Palmer has complained that Four Corners refused to grant him a live interview to answer its claims. But Four Corners staff say the program does not do live interviews and Palmer refused their requests for a pre-recorded interview.
