Clive Frederick Palmer (born 26 March 1954) is an Australian businessman and politician.
He has iron ore, nickel, and coal holdings.
Palmer owns many businesses such as Mineralogy, Waratah Coal, Queensland Nickel at Townsville, the Palmer Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast, Palmer Sea Reef Golf Course at Port Douglas, Palmer Colonial Golf Course at Robina, and the Palmer Gold Coast Golf Course, also at Robina.
Palmer was born on 26 March 1954 at Footscray Hospital in Footscray, a suburb of Melbourne, Victoria.
He spent his early years in the nearby suburb of Williamstown.
1963
His family moved to Queensland in 1963, and Palmer was largely raised on the Gold Coast, where he attended Aquinas College and Southport State High School, although he also attended Toowoomba Grammar School for a short time.
Palmer's father, George, was a travel agent, and the family travelled the world extensively.
George Palmer was also the proprietor of the Akron Tyre Co and the Akron Broadcasting Co and was the founder of Melbourne broadcasting station 3AK (now operating as SEN 1116).
1973
Palmer studied law, journalism and politics at the University of Queensland from 1973 to 1975, but did not finish the course.
He later completed a Diploma of Law through the Queensland Bar Board, and worked as a clerk and interviewing officer for the Public Defender's Office.
1980
During the early to mid-1980s, Palmer was a real estate agent.
He did well from the property boom on the Gold Coast, and he "retired" at the age of 29.
1985
In 1985 and 1986 Palmer founded three companies which undertook mining exploration in Western Australia (WA).
2006
These included Mineralogy, a company which in 2006 had 160 e9t of iron ore reserves in the Pilbara Ranges, in remote northern Western Australia.
Mineralogy and CITIC entered into an agreement in 2006 to develop some of the iron ore reserves Palmer owns.
2008
He owned Gold Coast United FC from 2008 to 2012.
In 2008, Palmer bought Waratah Coal.
2009
In 2009, he bought Queensland Nickel and the Palmer Nickel and Cobalt Refinery after BHP was going to close the refinery.
In the first year after purchasing the refinery, Palmer gifted staff 50 Mercedes Benz cars and thousands of overseas holidays after the refinery turned a huge profit.
2013
Palmer created the Palmer United Party in April 2013, winning the Sunshine Coast seat of Fairfax in the 2013 Australian federal election and sitting as an MP for one term.
2017
In 2018, after formally deregistering the party on 5 May 2017, Palmer revived his party as the United Australia Party, announcing that he would be running candidates for all 151 seats in the House of Representatives and later that he would run as a Queensland candidate for the Senate.
In November 2017, Justice Kenneth Martin of the Supreme Court of Western Australia awarded Mineralogy nearly $200 million.
Palmer said the decision was "a win for Australian law over Chinese Communist government powerhouses".
2018
Palmer transferred Mineralogy to New Zealand in December 2018, and moved it again to Singapore in January 2019.
Mineralogy has been involved in a long-running dispute with CITIC over a royalty payment.
2019
In the 2019 federal election, despite extensive advertising, he and his party won no seats.
His party later contested the 2022 federal election, and won one seat in the Senate.
The party was formally deregistered again in September 2022.
Palmer has frequently been involved in legal cases relating to his businesses, and once listed litigation as one of his hobbies in Who's Who.
He at times has been involved in complex cases, and journalist Hedley Thomas has written that Palmer's "lawyers take legal steps, presumably on his instructions, that prolong litigation and rack up costs for the other side" which can result in his opponents being unable to continue their case due to a lack of resources.
Palmer has argued that the litigation he is involved in is justified as it rights wrongs.
Palmer also attempted to use litigation as a gag order against his workers in his now defunct Queensland Nickel refinery, promising to pay the money he owed them only if they agreed not to make any disparaging comments about him.
, Palmer was the fifth richest Australian, when The Australian Financial Review assessed his net worth at A$23.66 billion on the 2023 Rich List.
As of May 2019, CITIC was suing Palmer and he had counter-sued them for $5 billion.
2020
In August 2020, the WA Parliament passed an emergency bill to block a legal claim against the government by Palmer, relating to Mineralogy.
WA Attorney-General John Quigley estimated the claim as totalling $30 billion, which he described as "rapacious" and equivalent to the annual budget of WA.
Palmer denied that estimate and mounted a challenge in the Federal Court to the legislation as unconstitutional.
On 28 March 2023, Palmer's Singapore-based company, Zeph Investments, filed a notice of arbitration, suing the Commonwealth of Australia for AUD$296 billion over the alleged loss of contractual entitlement, “moral damages” and “sovereign risk”, in relation to the iron ore project for which Palmer's company, Mineralogy, had already lost a lawsuit.
McGowan responded to the claim saying, "Today we have seen the most deplorable act of greed in Australian history", and "Clive Palmer is the greediest man in Australian history".
The Attorney-General, Mark Dreyfus, said that the Commonwealth will "vigorously defend" the suit.
