A flamable Australian billionaire is intensifying his conflict in opposition to the Aussie authorities, looking for almost $200 billion in damages over a longstanding mining dispute.
The billionaire, 69-year-old Clive Palmer, controls the corporate that filed the declare—Zeph Investments, which is headquartered in Singapore. The battle traces again to 2012, when authorities in Western Australia blocked his agency’s iron ore proposal. Palmer’s firm sought to revive the matter by means of arbitration, however the effort failed in courtroom. The $200 billion gambit marks a second stab at getting the federal government to pay.
Information of the huge declare was earlier reported by The Guardian.
Palmer has develop into a fixture of Australian headlines. Final 12 months, he promised to spend a record-breaking amount of cash to elect his favored political candidates, although in the long run his celebration secured only a single seat.
Nonetheless, his affect has made some observers uneasy. “Take into consideration in america one of many Koch brothers working for president or one thing and outspending the Democrats and the Republicans,” Peter Chen, a senior lecturer on the College of Sydney, beforehand advised The Every day Beast. “It is that form of loopy cash.”
Palmer additionally generated controversy within the early days of the pandemic for his anti-vaxx rhetoric. To the chagrin of public well being authorities, he revealed commercials casting doubt on the effectiveness of vaccines.
The billionaire additionally sparked upheaval for a protracted authorized battle with the premier of Western Australia, whom Palmer alleged had defamed him. The premier countersued, and in August each side had been discovered to have defamed the opposite—although Palmer was ordered to pay higher damages.
The hubbub over the iron ore undertaking started greater than a decade in the past, after one in every of Palmer’s companies submitted its plans to the federal government for approval, which it insisted complied with an earlier settlement. The bid was rejected, prompting the mining agency to hunt arbitration, as The Australian Monetary Assessment reported.
A number of years later, with the matter seeming to lean Palmer’s manner, the federal government enacted “emergency laws” that “terminated the arbitration, voided any awards granted to Palmer and his companies, and prevented the state from having any legal responsibility in direction of the billionaire in associated disputes,” in response to The Sydney Morning Herald.
“The federal government has achieved what we will to guard tax payers from Clive Palmer’s $30 billion declare which might have bankrupted our state,” Western Australia’s premier mentioned on the time.
Outraged, Palmer known as the premier “an outlaw swinging his gun,” arguing that he had“used his place as Premier within the Parliament to present himself and his Legal professional Common immunity from the legal legislation.”
He appealed to Australia’s excessive courtroom, although the justices unanimously voted in opposition to him.
Now, in a distinct strategy, Palmer’s Singapore-based agency is claiming that Australia violated phrases of a free commerce settlement and is liable for enormous damages. And would you imagine it: the Western Australia premier is as soon as once more livid, reportedly referring to Palmer this week because the “greediest man in Australian historical past.”
Palmer has recruited Australia’s former lawyer basic Christian Porter as one in every of his firm’s attorneys.
The authorized aggression will seemingly do little to enhance Palmer’s standing in Australia. (A December 2021 ballot labeled him the “least likable politician” within the nation, with simply 8 p.c of respondents viewing him favorably.)
As Greg McCarthy, emeritus professor on the College of Western Australia, beforehand wrote to the Beast: “Palmer is all about EGO.”