Meeting backs Clive aid

Palmer ratifies payment of millions to himself

CLIVE Palmer chaired a private meeting late last year to retrospectively approve about $200 million in payments from Queensland Nickel to himself, family and other business interests.

In the latest audacious chapter of the resources magnate’s battle with QN’s taxpayer-funded liquidators, new documents filed with the Supreme Court contain minutes of the meeting on November 21, at which Mr Palmer was the only official attendee along with an employee “observer”.

In the meeting, he resolved to approve and ratify a string of payments made between 2009 and 2016 that have been the subject of a court battle with liquidators since the company collapsed two years ago with $300 million in debts and about 800 job losses.

The payments included more than $5 million to two mystery women overseas, almost $8 million to his fatherin-law, $14 million to himself and a whopping $57 million to his failed dinosaur-themed resort Palmer Leisure Coolum.

“It was resolved to ratify all directions given by Clive F. Palmer to Queensland Nickel Ply Ltd given in whatever capacity in the period 1 July 2009 to 30 March 2016,” the minutes stated.

“It was resolved to ratify and approve all actions, payments, and activities of Clive Palmer for the period 1 July 2009 to the date hereof.”

It was also resolved that Mr Palmer, as the owner of QN’s parent companies, “has and had full authority to act for and on the company’s behalf”.

It has previously been revealed Mr Palmer held a meeting in the weeks before a public examination into the collapse of QN began in 2016 to ratify the contents of a “little green book”, which he claimed gave him the power to do whatever he wanted with the company’s money.

It comes as Mr Palmer announced yesterday that he wants to sue Australian Super for allegedly failing to pay him about $90,000 in entitlements from his time as a politician.

The former federal politician is being pursued in the Supreme Court for allegedly acting as a shadow director of QN and breaching his obligations, which he has denied.

He has also maintained he does not know the whereabouts of QN’s globetrotting former director, his nephew Clive Mensink.

Mr Mensink has been overseas since mid-2016, despite two warrants being issued for his arrest after he failed to give evidence at the high-profile public examination.