Gangrenous Toe Clive Palmer Is Suing Australia For $300 Billion In Damages Over A Rejected Mine

clive palmer

Clive Palmer, a literal billionaire who does not need more money, is suing Australia over claims the government owes him almost $300 billion in damages because of a rejected mine. And he’s called in former Attorney General (and ABC lawsuit loser) Christian Porter to help him do it.

The parasitic egg’s Singapore-based company Zeph Investments lodged the lawsuit under international trade law on Tuesday, The West Australian revealed, which claims Australia owes him USD$198,202,414,285 (around AUD$297 billion) in damages, not including interests and costs.

The lawsuit claims Australia breached the Asean free trade deal when Western Australia not only rejected Palmer’s massive Pilbara iron ore mining project, but also introduced a law that prevented him from getting any compensation for it, which he claims cost him billions.

Honestly, the whole thing was wild — Clive Palmer tried to sue WA for $30 billion in compensation in 2020, which the state definitely could NOT afford.

Premier Mark McGowan referred to Clive Palmer as an “enemy of the state” and the WA government essentially introduced a law to stop him from taking them to court in an effort to make all the legal dramas go away and prevent their state from being massively in debt.

It was a huge call, and totally unprecedented. And kind of fucked when you really think about it from a legal intervention perspective.

Palmer obviously opposed the law, his grounds being not that he just wanted to get paid, but he also argued it would make other companies hesitant to strike deals with WA, tanking investments into the state.

But it passed anyway, so Palmer took it to the High Court, which ruled it was constitutional. And now we’re here, with an international lawsuit that would cost WA 10 times the original claim at $300 billion. Mind you, Clive Palmer himself was worth $13 billion in 2021, according to the Financial Review.

Palmer, as director of Zeph Investments, claims Australia breached its obligations on investments and compensation when it refused to compensate him for the rejected iron ore mine. The claim alleges loss of a contractual entitlement, “moral damages” and “sovereign risk” to other projects.

Christian Porter, who used to be attorney general, is one of the 10 lawyers listed in the case — which is an interesting choice given his very public loss during his own defamation lawsuit against the ABC.

Spokesperson for the attorney-general, Mark Dreyfus, has maintained the government will fight the lawsuit.

“We will vigorously defend Australia’s interests,” he said, per The West Australian.

“The commonwealth will work with Western Australia to ensure Australia’s interests are protected.

“As these matters have now become the subject of an investor-state claim, it would not be appropriate to provide further comment at this time.”

Clive Palmer, on the other hand, is clearly trying to appeal to the average Aussie with his own comments, where he claimed “if any windfall was to come to Mineralogy, the funds would be used for public good”.

Right, as if this squished toad knows anything about public good.

Palmer suggested he might use these funds to invest in WA’s health system and hospitals, which is concerning given his anti-vaccine stance.

He also said he could invest in a “new independent daily newspaper in WA which doesn’t rely on cartoons to sell copies”, in a sooky reference to a quite frankly hilarious cover the The West Australian published.

The Commonwealth has 30 days to formally respond to Zeph Investments’ notice of dispute.

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