Beware Clive claims
Couple warn against Palmer’s attempt to reopen refinery
A FORMER nickel refinery operator and his partner have warned people to beware of the claims of controversial businessman Clive Palmer.
Shaun and Angie Bramwell also say Mr Palmer should pay the refinery’s creditors, including them, if he wants to reopen the plant he owns at Yabulu.
“I’m not a fan I have to say,” Mrs Bramwell said.
“He is making all these magnanimous claims, and running all these ads.
“I think people need to do some research on what he has to say.”
Mr Bramwell, a former refinery operator who undertook work in solar drying of ore, believes leopards do not change their spots.
“I’ve seen it before. He talks the talk and if you did not know him, you might believe what he says,” Mr Bramwell said.
“But history to me proves that he is in it for himself. I understand ( people in business) are there to make money. He seems to take it a bit further.”
Mr Palmer is funding an advertising blitz on radio, television and social media in an effort to win public support for reopening the refinery and regaining use of the Townsville port.
But Mr Palmer has not approached Glencore, the lessee of the berth the refinery previously used, to negotiate fresh licences.
Instead, he has called on the State Government to use its powers under the Queensland Nickel Act to resume the wharf for the refinery’s use.
Mrs Bramwell believed Mr Palmer was asking for something that could not be delivered.
“He is asking ( the Government) for something they can’t legally do. Why would someone do that?” Mrs Bramwell asked.
She said even though advertising material stated refinery staff were paid 25 per cent above award rates, the base wage of her partner had been $ 56,000 and any wage increases had been frozen in the years leading up to the plant’s shutdown.
“Yes, Townsville needs a go, it needs industry and money,” Mrs Bramwell said.
“What former workers want to know is will they see what they are owed? Will the creditors get paid?”
Mrs Bramwell said her husband was owed $ 5000 and some families she knew were owed $ 26,000 in entitlements.
Mr Palmer has offered to pay the port. He also says he authorised an offer to pay the costs of the administration just before the refinery was shut down and the operating company was placed in liquidation in 2016. But so far he has told the Bulletin the debts of creditors are a matter for the liquidators.