Palmer vs Australia arbitration: Clive uses $300 billion case to renew hostilities with Mark McGowan

Billionaire and serial litigant Clive Palmer has used his unprecedented bid for $300 billion in damages from Australia to renew hostilities with his nemesis Mark McGowan – telling the panel who will decide the claim the former WA Premier was a “Labor hack” who “crumbled” under his legal threats.

Mr Palmer is attempting to use an international arbitration process to claim that the WA government’s unprecedented 2020 law scuppering his $30 billion claim against the state means he is now entitled to ten times that.

That damages claim has prompted the federal government to unfurl its biggest legal firepower, with solicitor general Stephen Donaghue KC leading a huge league of lawyers arguing in the Hague that Mr Palmer’s bid should be thrown out early.

As part of that objection, Mr Palmer made his own opening statement on Monday, despite his own legal team also numbering into the teens.

And on Tuesday, he was centre stage again, as one of Australia’s richest men went head-to-head with Mr Donaghue over the eye-watering damages claim.

In his argument, Mr Palmer says he could never have known or foreseen that the 2020 Amendment Act would become a reality – repeatedly citing a paper written by former premier Colin Barnett in the late 90s, which said it should never happen.

But, Mr Donoghue instead pointed to much more recent documents – letters written by Mr Palmer to the WA Government in 2019 – which threatened the exact same international treaty process he has now embarked on.

Mr Palmer claimed despite those threats, he still didn’t believe the state agreement would be scrapped.

“No one would ever believe a state government would pass such legislation,” he said.

“No one could take McGowan seriously, he’s just a Labor hack. I would have put anything in there -- I will sell your wife, we will sell up your house.

“Because it was written … with an express purpose of stopping him from attacking my company and our livelihood of our workers. And it did. He backed down completely,

“That gave us every expectation he was weak and that … anytime he tried to do anything against us, we just had to hit him in the press and he would crumble. And he did.”

In fact, it was Mr McGowan along with attorney general John Quigley who passed the law which torpedoed the $30 billion claim based on arguments over the Balmoral South mine in the Pilbara.

Mr Palmer has appealed all the way to the High Court about that law – and lost. And so he now relies on the fact he had a company in Singapore to say he is entitled to even more damages through international trade treaties.

Bluntly questioned by Mr Donaghue about how his company Singapore Zeph Investments came to be swiftly created, Mr Palmer said that was his decision alone – for tax reasons and business reasons.

“I’m not used to being accountable to anybody,” he said at one point. “I used to lecture at this at Deakin University for five years and put these deals together.

On Monday, Mr Donaghue revealed that Mr Palmer’s side had chosen not to formally cross-examine any of Australia’s expert witnesses.

But that didn’t stop Mr Palmer from downplaying their expertise when asked about their conclusions about his Singapore business.

“I don’t know where this fellow’s got his information, and I don’t know how many deals he’s done or how many mines he’s built. I don’t regard him as an expert,” he said.

That did not impress Mr Donaghue, whose position puts him as the second most senior legal operative in the country behind Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus.

“The point is … if you had a problem with this evidence, you cross-examine, you provide evidence of your own,” he said.

“You have done nothing to assist the tribunal in knowing how to deal with the evidence put forward by an expert, with 30 years and billions of dollars of experience.

“So you’ve assisted the tribunal by leaving unanswered expert evidence which you now contend you don’t accept is correct.”

While the hearing is happening in the Hague, it is also being watched with keen interest in Peth and Canberra.

When quizzed about Mr Palmer’s astronomical damages claim, Premier Roger Cook said his government was “highly involved” in the case.

“Ultimately, even though it’s the Commonwealth that is defending this action, the State is part of that process and will await the outcome with great anticipation and concern,” he said.

“In relation to the arbitration, Clive Palmer is literally suing the country for hundreds of billions of dollars. We should all reflect on that.”

And announcing a new free trade agreement with the United Arab Emirates, Trade Minister Don Farrell noted that deal did not include an investor-state dispute settlement clause.

“We’re seeing what Clive Palmer’s been doing with that in the last few days,” he told reporters in Canberra.

“This Government has made it very clear that we will not introduce those clauses into our trade agreements. They’re not necessary. They can potentially damage Australian companies, and we won’t have them.”