Clive Palmer sets up NZ company in threat to sue Australian taxpayers for $45b - Polidicks

Clive Palmer has channelled his corporate empire through New Zealand and threatened to use free trade rules to sue Australian taxpayers for $45 billion as part of a dispute with a Chinese mining company. Mr Palmer, who has re-emerged as one of Australia's richest people according to Forbes magazine, last month transferred the ownership of his flagship Mineralogy company to an Auckland-based holding company. That company, Mineralogy International Limited (MIL), last week flagged using investor protections under the trans-Tasman free trade agreement to claim $45 billion in damages from the Commonwealth if the Western Australian government intervenes against Mr Palmer in his latest dispute with Chinese state-owned Citic. However, NZ company searches show MIL is controlled by two of Mr Palmer's Australian companies, River Crescent Pty Ltd and Closeridge Pty Ltd. Those companies have registered offices in Brisbane and were previously direct shareholders in Mineralogy. https://www.abc.net.au/news/2019-01-22/clive-palmer-sets-up-kiwi-company-threatens-to-sue-taxpayers/10734744 Mr Palmer is attempting to revive his United Australia Party's political fortunes with a blanket advertising campaign using the Donald Trump-inspired slogan "Make Australia Great", billboards and unsolicited text messages promising UAP would "ban unsolicited text messages".

What a tool lol.

Why do these people always look like they're mid-transition to Sith lord.

For people who don't know, this guy is a wage-dodging trump wannabe mining magnate. I can't wait till he gets massacred at the polls next election

unsolicited text messages promising UAP would "ban unsolicited text messages". Yup, he's Australian Trump alright. This is the exact cognitive dissonance I expect from airhead populist secret dictators.

we dont want Australian levels of environment fucking here thanks

We don't want it here ether I wouldn't be surprised if he lost a lot of potential votes from how invasive and annoying his advertising is. There's this radio ad that keeps playing and it's just him gibbering off words about lifting tax to raise income or something? it's so bizarre.

this is the bloke who wants to "make australia great!", who was already in canberra years ago with a less than 7% attendance rate, one of the lowest voting records in relatively short australia's history. but sure he is a hard working man who will work hard for australians. just like the hard working aussies from his nickel refinery that he funneled $180 million dollars out of when it went into liquidation so he "couldn't afford to pay" the $70 million he owed them in wages, or the tax paying aussies who then had to pay that $70 million through their tax dollars. also he loves to talk shit about china and says how he is going to be tough on china. except he received nearly 3 billion US dollars from a mining company owned by the chinese government for a mine that would never be able to turn a profit. but now that they are stakeholders in a massive mine they get a say in resource policy. so his billboards that are plastered literally fucking everywhere are indirectly (maybe even directly? after all, half a billion dollars of his assets have been frozen pending criminal conduct investigation) funded by the chinese goverment. yet this fucking scum bag is going to garner support from racist and dumb fucks who want a politician who is going to shake things up in canberra.

I wish we could get corporate money out of our democracies, and then crush the company of the first oligarch to step up to set an example for the rest of the shitheads.

Not likely with Russia guiding the way...

This isn’t a case of corporate money in democracy - it’s a coincidence that Palmer is contesting the next election. He’s doing this particular thing so if the Western Australian government intervenes against his company’s dispute with a Chinese company, he will sue the Commonwealth government for damages (via the Australia-NZ free trade agreement, which I presume lets entities collect damages from the Commonwealth government even if a state government was the cause). WA Premier Mark McGowan has threatened to pass laws removing Mineralogy's veto power over planned expansions by Citic, which claims Mineralogy is putting 3,000 jobs and the project's viability at risk by blocking its proposal. Mr Mashayanyika wrote to Mr McGowan last Friday saying MIL would invoke the Australia-NZ trade pact to protect its interests if the State Government intervened.

Fucking Clive Palmer. Nobody can forget this. Clive Palmer is a piece of shit and a paid for Chinese agent in Australian politics. Then again, the latter is true for a lot of our politicians.