Clive Palmer has enlisted the help of his previous political opponent and former attorney-general Christian Porter in a $296 billion case against the Commonwealth for its alleged role in blocking compensation of his rejected mining project.
The unlikely duo have heaped blame on the Australian government, claiming it was significantly involved in the execution of a WA law that prevented any payout to Palmer for a Pilbara iron ore project rejected by the state’s government.
In a post to Facebook, Palmer said any “windfall” from the case would be injected into the “public good”, namely “neglected WA hospitals” and a new independent state newspaper that “doesn’t rely on cartoons to sell copies”.
The law at the heart of the claim was introduced by the WA government in 2020 with a mandate to prevent bankrupting the state to the tune of $30 billion. It followed an arbitration claim for the Balmoral South mine, another of Palmer’s rejected iron ore projects. The legislation was rushed through Parliament with the backing of both opposition Liberal and National parties.
It was deemed “extraordinary and unprecedented” for a subject that WA Attorney-General John Quigley at the time said was “not normal”, while WA Premier Mark McGowan described Palmer as “an enemy of the state”.
Palmer took the matter to the High Court in 2021 and lost the challenge.
The Pilbara project is now subject to the same legislation. Palmer’s Singapore-based company Zeph Investments has raised the stakes with a $300 billion federal case that will argue a breach of the ASEAN free trade deal.
Porter will lead a band of 10 lawyers (himself included) to take on the Commonwealth.
Geoffrey Watson SC, director of the Centre for Public Integrity and former counsel assisting the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), said it was appalling that a former Commonwealth attorney-general would appear to sue the Commonwealth.
“The role of an attorney-general has been the Commonwealth’s senior lawyer privy to all its secrets and its legal strategies. To then try and turn that into a market commodity appals me,” he told Crikey.
“It feels like a betrayal.”
So Porter’s behaviour “seems like a betrayal”? Isn’t that consistent with his previous conduct?
Much of his previous conduct was egregious and repellent, but this is in a different league. It’s astonishing in the same way that Morrison’s multiple combined ministries all for himself power-grab was astonishing. It’s not against the rules only because nobody thought a rule was needed when it is so obviously wrong. As federal Attorney General, Porter was the First Law Officer of the Commonwealth. Nobody who has held that position should ever join in an action against the Commonwealth. It should be unthinkable.
Or if he does, he should give up his parliamentary pension and all the other overly generous things we tax payers will be funding for the rest of his miserable life.
Is that promise to inject any “windfall” into the “public good”, namely “neglected WA hospitals” and a new independent state newspaper same like his promise to pay out all the workers at his (deliberately) bankrupted Queensland smelter?
i.e. Not worth the paper it’s written on?
Rest assured, any windfall Clive got would go straight into his own sky-rocket, never to be seen again.
By – the-by, whatever happened to his gross nephew who was the stooge in the smelter debacle?
Still swanning around the globe courtesy of uncle Clive?
Is the arrest warrant still outstanding?
Possibly the nephew is quietly overseeing the development & construction of Titanic II…
Let’s hope he captains it on it’s maiden voyage……………
Ah, the ‘public good.’ Always an excuse for the hyper-greedy and corrupt. Works well for ClubsNSW and Stake.
As promises go, it’s up there with, ‘Hand over your wallet and I’ll buy you a drink’.
It also bears some resemblance to the pokies mob, whose extraction of many billions of dollars a year is justified, if that’s the word, by their ‘generous’ recycling of a little of their loot into local sports facilities and the like. And since that is apparently a Good Thing which means the pokies are ok, maybe Palmer’s deal is acceptable too.
Well, one thing is for certain – Christian Porter definitely has no more political ambitions in Western australia – hitching his wagon to the most despised man in the State won’t win him any friends (not that he had many before).
Porter has shown himself to be the true grub that he always was. He might be better suited to team up with his erstwhile colleague Alan Tudge. Together, they could perhaps open a practice in cut-price divorces, or some other area of low-rent opportunism.
Their firm could have a great portmanteau……………………
Porridge.
(Apologies to Ronnie Barker for putting Fletch in such low company)
Our very own Laurel & Hardy of litigation.
I think we just identified the “anonymous donor” to his “Blind Trust”……………………….
i think you may be right
That made me laugh Thucydides…Lawyers Polies and mega business moguls are the most prolific when it comes to requiring blind trust.
It’s another fine mess, sure enough.
Palmer and Porter? If I wrote what I really think of both I’d be moderated off Crikey BTL comments for life.
Though, in a way, that could make me seem to be very little better than Latham – whose behaviour I also deplore totally.
They were made for each other…………….
………..neither one could lie straight in bed.
The biggest loser in this affair is the Australian body politic; another cut, bleeding faith. To the average moderately-engaged voter, Latham’s outburst is further evidence that politicians will say and do what is required to get into office and then reveal true lack of character. (In his case, why anyone is anyone surprised?) The Aston by-election result adds to weight of evidence that voters are weary of the the churn of bad actors, with the Libs the main players over the decade. The Aston loss is especially bad for the Libs as Campbell would have been a good MP with moderate leanings in a party reduced to a reactionary core.