MP misses 28-day window for updating business interests register with December declaration that he had not been director of company since February

This article is more than 4 years old

This article is more than 4 years old

Clive Palmer failed to update his parliamentary register of interests within the requisite period to account for his role as a director in several companies, including Queensland Nickel.

All federal politicians are required to disclose details of company directorships, shareholdings, property and other interests in a register tabled in parliament. MPs are required to update the register within 28 days if details of interests change.



Palmer’s last update to the register on 10 December 2015 details his resignation from three companies: Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd, QNI Resources Pty Ltd and QNI Metals Pty Ltd. However, the resignation date given by Palmer in the declaration is 16 February 2015, making the update well outside the 28-day period.

According to his register, Palmer had previously resigned from the companies in April 2014, then assumed directorship again on 22 January 2015, before again resigning in February.

Palmer’s December update came on the same day Guardian Australia revealed company documents contradicted his public claim to have relinquished directorships in all companies he owned upon entering parliament in 2013.



Palmer had released a statement saying it was “time to set the record straight in relation to misinformation about Queensland Nickel”.



“It is evident that I am being personally attacked because I am a politician. The simple fact is I have not been a director of any of the companies I own since 2013 when I became a federal member for Fairfax,” he said.

Asic documents also show Palmer was appointed director of Palmer Coolum Resort Pty after being elected, and that on 25 May 2014 he ceased to be a director of Cosmo Developments Pty Ltd, one of the companies listed in his interests declaration when he entered parliament.



Palmer’s register of interests has not been updated to reflect the change of roles with either company.



The resolution of the House of Representatives that governs the register of interests says that an MP who “knowingly fails to notify any alteration of those interests to the Registrar of Members’ Interests within 28 days of the change occurring … shall be guilty of a serious contempt of the House of Representatives and shall be dealt with by the House accordingly”.



According to the Parliamentary Library, penalties for contempt of parliament can include a public reprimand, prison time, a requirement for an apology or suspension from Parliament, though enforcement of such penalties has been rare.



Russell Broadbent, the chair of the parliamentary privileges and members’ interests committee, declined to comment on Palmer’s apparent oversights.



An insolvency industry source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Palmer’s brief stint as director of Queensland Nickel, QNI Resources and QNI Metals may have been an attempt to secure funding for the companies via a director’s guarantee.



Queensland Nickel entered voluntary administration on Monday after what Palmer describe in December as “a small deficit in cash flow” brought on by a slump in nickel prices.



Almost 240 workers made redundant last Friday now have to line up as unsecured creditors to obtain their entitlements from the company, which is reportedly $70m in debt. However, employees are entitled to be paid their outstanding entitlements before other unsecured creditors and some secured creditors.



A day before the workers were sacked, Palmer’s companies China First and Waratah Coal applied to become secured creditors of Queensland Nickel and its related parent companies QNI Resources and QNI Metals, searches of the Personal Property Securities Register show.



If accepted, this would place claims on Queensland Nickel assets by China First and Waratah Coal – entities related to Palmer’s proposed Galilee Basin mining venture – over the assets secured by those entities in the event the metals producer went into liquidation.

Palmer is still listed as a director of 70 companies, Asic records show.



Palmer holds properties in Queensland in his own name worth at least $35.7m – according to their purchase prices and the last land valuations.



These range from a central Brisbane office building – which Palmer personally took off the hands of one of his companies for $15.4m in 2013 – to a $100,000 share in a Thrifty Link hardware store site with his sister in Jandowae.

Palmer did not respond to a request for comment via his publicists and his parliamentary chief of staff.