Palmer folds on claim for damages

CLIVE Palmer has dropped a $ 1.8 billion counterclaim against the liquidators of his Queensland Nickel refinery who are pursuing him in the Supreme Court over claims he owes hundreds of millions of dollars to creditors.

The former federal MP brought the enormous claim against John Park of FTI Consulting and special purpose liquidator Stephen Parberry in April this year.

At the time he said the claim was “for damages caused to me and my companies” as a result of the long- running legal dispute over the refinery’s 2016 collapse.

“This politically motivated witchhunt has gone on for two years and has been an incredible waste of taxpayers’ money,” he told media.

But the claims were yesterday dropped during a hearing in Brisbane’s Supreme Court.

“The withdrawal of these claims supports the Special Purpose Liquidator’s view that such claims should never have been filed as they failed to have a proper basis,” a spokesman for the liquidators said.

“The SPLs are committed to ensuring the claims QNI has issued in the Supreme Court are heard on 29 April 2019 as currently timetabled and without further delay.”

Mr Palmer’s lawyers have applied to have the trial listed for next year cancelled, saying there is too much paperwork to sift through in the allotted time frame.

It comes after Justice John Bond recused himself from the case after Mr Palmer and his companies accused him of apprehended bias.

The move came after Brisbane Supreme Court judge David Jackson accused Mr Palmer’s barrister Miles Condon SC on Monday of not doing “proper work”.

Justice Jackson was considering applications ahead of a 60- day trial from April next year when liquidators will try to claw back hundreds of millions of dollars owed from the collapse of Mr Palmer’s Townsville nickel refinery.

In making Mr Palmer’s case to proceed with the counterclaims, Mr Condon SC alleged breaches by liquidators in February- March 2016.

Justice Jackson lamented the “extremely late” allegations of “serious misconduct” and suggested “that it’s plain from your submissions that proper work in this has not been done”.