Clive Palmer has declared the Palmer United party (PUP) will push ahead with plans to convene a Senate committee inquiry into the actions of the Queensland government, escalating his long-running dispute with the premier, Campbell Newman.



The PUP leader said his newly sworn-in Senate leader, Glenn Lazarus, was working on a draft motion to go before the upper house to set up a select committee “into what’s going on in Queensland”.

“I imagine that will be passed by the Senate and then we’ll be able to see more of the dirt,” Palmer told the National Press Club on Wednesday.

The wording of the motion is not available, but a spokesman for Palmer said the proposed committee inquiry would investigate Newman and the Queensland government.

It is unclear whether Labor and the Greens would support the move and therefore whether there are adequate numbers in the Senate to launch the committee inquiry. The Coalition is certain to oppose it.

The inquiry would provide an avenue for Palmer to air claims about impropriety by the Queensland government, marking the next step in his dispute with Newman and senior state government ministers.

Palmer, previously a life member of Queensland’s Liberal National party (LNP) and a generous donor, fell out with the government in 2012, coinciding with an unfavourable decision regarding a proposed rail corridor in the Galilee Basin. Newman has previously accused Palmer of being unhappy because he had failed to gain preferential treatment from the government.

Palmer launched defamation proceedings against Newman and the deputy premier, Jeff Seeney, over their comments about him. Newman told the Australian newspaper on Sunday he was surprised that neither the West Australian nor Queensland police appeared to have initiated an investigation into allegations surrounding the use of more than $12m of Chinese funds from a bank account controlled by Palmer.

Brisbane-based advertising company Media Circus Network has been ordered to produce details of a payment worth more than $2m from a Palmer company “on or about August 8 2013” as part of proceedings in the supreme court of Queensland.

Mineralogy, the company founded by Palmer, in the proceedings acknowledges in heavily redacted documents that a cheque in the amount of $2.167m was made to a “nominated payee in respect of $2m for port management services at the Port of Cape Preston at the direction of Queensland Nickel Pty Ltd, and in respect of $167,065.60 was made at the direction of Mineralogy in payment of an amount due to Mineralogy”.

The Australian, which has been investigating the funding issue and has cited court documents in its coverage, asked Palmer at the National Press Club on Monday about allegations money had been used in the PUP election campaign.

Palmer sought to brush off the criticism as “not true” and based on an “allegation made by someone employed by the Chinese government to undermine our sovereignty”.

Pressed on whether he had signed the relevant cheques, Palmer said he could not recall. He later added it was a bank account of Mineralogy, a company he owned.

Newman’s comment about the lack of a police investigation into the matter prompted a furious reaction from Palmer. The PUP leader described Newman as “a Nazi” who “wants the Gestapo”.

At the National Press Club, Palmer made accusations about comments made at a meeting that he, Newman, Seeney and others attended in north Queensland before the 2012 state election. Palmer said ministers were required to act in the benefit of the people of Queensland, not in the interests of a company that requested something. He suggested the proposed Senate inquiry could shed light on the details.

Newman brushed off the Nazi jibe, saying the government had acting “with the best interests of Queenslanders at heart”.

“I think his comments, well, people will make what they will of them,” Newman said.

Seeney added: “We’ve come to expect that from Clive Palmer … Litigation is Clive Palmer’s hobby it’s not ours; getting Queensland back on track is what we’re about.”