Background and career
Clive Frederick Palmer (born 26 March 1954) is an Australian billionaire businessman and politician. He has iron ore, nickel, and coal holdings, and owns various mining and resort businesses. Palmer founded the Palmer United Party in 2013, and was the member of parliament (MP) for the Queensland division of Fairfax from 2013 to 2016. Palmer has been involved in frequent legal cases relating to his businesses, and has mentioned litigation as a hobby of his in Who's Who, with journalist Hedley Thomas reporting that "His lawyers take legal steps [...] 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 finances. Palmer has also attempted to use legal action as a gag order against his workers. As of May 2025, Palmer was the fifth richest Australian, when the Australian Financial Review assessed his net worth at A$20.12 billion on the 2025 Rich List. Businesses that Palmer owns include Mineralogy, Waratah Coal, Queensland Nickel, Palmer Coolum Resort on the Sunshine Coast, Palmer Sea Reef Golf Course in Port Douglas, Palmer Colonial Golf Course in Robina, and the Palmer Gold Coast Golf Course, also at Robina. He owned Gold Coast United FC from 2008 to 2012.
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. 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. Palmer has claimed that, amidst a months long trip to China, he sat on the lap of Mao Zedong at the age of nine. 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). 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.
During the early to mid-1980s, Palmer worked as a real estate agent. He did well from the property boom on the Gold Coast, and retired from real estate at the age of 29.
In 1985 and 1986 Palmer founded three companies which undertook mining exploration in Western Australia (WA). These included Mineralogy, a company which in 2006 had 160 billion tonnes (160×10^9 long tons; 180×10^9 short tons) of iron ore reserves in the Pilbara Ranges, in remote northern Western Australia. In 2008, Palmer bought Waratah Coal. 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. Mineralogy and CITIC entered into an agreement in 2006 to develop some of the iron ore reserves Palmer owns. 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". As of May 2019, CITIC was suing Palmer and he had counter-sued them for $5 billion. 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 A$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. The Permanent Court of Arbitration dismissed the suit in September 2025, ruling that it had no jurisdiction over a claim against a state by one of its own citizens; Palmer was not a 'foreign investor' through his Singapore-based company. He was ordered to pay costs of A$13.6m. It is now uncertain whether Palmer's three PCA cases against the government of Queensland, claiming a further total of A$120b, will proceed.
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. On 18 January 2016, Queensland Nickel entered voluntary administration. Palmer declined to pay the entitlements of workers who lost their jobs when Queensland Nickel closed, stating that "I have no personal responsibility, I retired from business over three years ago". He also blamed the administrators for sacking the workforce. This forced the Federal Government to cover the workers' entitlements. In April 2019 Palmer announced that he intended to re-open the Queensland Nickel refinery and pay the $7.16 million still owed to workers following the 2019 federal election. The Special Purpose Liquidator of Queensland Nickel stated that Palmer's offer was inadequate as it did not cover the money owed to small businesses and was unclear whether he would repay the Federal Government. The Liquidator was seeking $200 million from Palmer, other individuals and related entities, with a trial to take place from July 2019. The Australian Government was also seeking to recover $70 million from Palmer personally to meet the costs of the payments it made to Queensland Nickel workers through the same trial. Palmer stated in April 2019 that the administrators should repay the government as they were responsible for sacking the refinery's workers, and not him. The Canberra Times reported that 218 workers were made redundant shortly before the operation was placed into voluntary administration. In August 2019 Palmer reached a settlement two weeks into a trial in the Queensland Supreme Court, understood to total $110m. He agreed to repay the federal government for the entitlements it has already paid under the Fair Entitlements Guarantee (FEG), “all other outstanding employee entitlements, and a full recovery for the majority of unsecured creditors”. Palmer maintained his position that the scheme should never have been triggered by the liquidators in the first place and under the terms of the Settlement Agreement, the Special Purpose Liquidator withdrew all claims the SPL made against Palmer and all of the defendants associated with him. All parties paid their own costs in the court matter; Palmer personally appeared in court and represented himself. A small number of debt claims against Mineralogy remain in dispute and before the courts. Palmer claimed that the settlement of the debts had left him “vindicated”. “Today's settlement confirms the actions against me were nothing more than a witch-hunt designed to smear my good reputation”, Palmer said.
Palmer purchased the Coolum Hyatt Resort in 2011. He later announced plans to build a park featuring animatronic dinosaurs there. Palmer ordered more than 160 animatronic dinosaurs, which included an initial shipment of a 3.5-metre (11 ft) tall, 20-metre (66 ft) long T. rex, nicknamed "Jeff". Palmer received full council approval for the park on 25 July 2013, and it was expected to open to the public in 2014. On 14 December 2013, the dinosaur park, now called "Palmersaurus", was opened to the public. Palmer's installation of dinosaurs along the side of the resort's golf course led the Australian PGA Championship to be relocated from it. The Palmer Coolum Resort was mothballed in 2015 due to low occupancy rates, with 600 people losing their jobs over the period after Palmer purchased the complex. In 2017, the ABC reported that "once regarded as one of south-east Queensland's most prestigious resorts, the site is a shadow of its former self and has been the centre of a legal battle between retirees who own villa shares and Clive Palmer". In 2018 the Australian Securities and Investments Commission charged Palmer with violations of the Corporation Act in relation to an attempt to take over timeshare villas at the resort in 2012. Palmer has stated that the charges are an attempt to stop him standing for election.
