Palmer challenges ‘ fool’ mayor on Yabulu

CLIVE Palmer has thrown down the gauntlet to Townsville to welcome him back, otherwise he may not invest to reopen Queensland Nickel.

In an interview with the ABC, in which Mr Palmer ( right) attacked Mayor Jenny Hill, the former politician said he was considering reopening the Yabulu refinery.

He said whether he invest- ed in Townsville was a matter of him being “impressed” with the “quality of the local politicians and the community”.

“Nobody else will invest in Townsville,” he said.

“Even the Queensland Government won’t invest in Townsville. They built a stadium but there’s no point having a stadium if people can’t afford to go and watch what’s going on in the stadium.”

Mr Palmer defended the company’s financial record, saying it never would have closed if the Chinese government had met its obligations with the Queensland and Australian governments.

His comments came in the wake of a WA Supreme Court judgment which ordered Sino Iron and Korean Steel to pay $ 196.2 million in unpaid royalties to his company Mineralogy. He said he was in a position to reopen the refinery.

Asked about scepticism of his plan from Cr Hill, Mr Palmer attacked the city’s mayor.

“She’s just a fool to be honest with you,” he said. “For seven years we kept the thing open when BHP had it closed.”

Cr Hill said Mr Palmer’s business decisions and the closure of the refinery caused a huge amount of pain to the city. “No one in Townsville will accept being lectured to from Clive Palmer,” she said.