Australia's master miner of taxpayer dollars
Is Clive Palmer a model for Aussie coal schemers suing Alberta?
Aside from sharing 1954 as the year of their births, Australian mining magnates Clive Palmer and Northback owner Gina Rinehart both enjoy what Palmer calls his “hobby”: litigation.
Palmer is currently suing Australian taxpayers for $410 billion as compensation for the government of Western Australia's rejection of an iron ore scheme.
After losing his initialA $30 billion claim in the Australian courts, Palmer’s increased his claim 10-fold and went after his home country under an investor-rights clause common in international trade agreements.
WA Premier Mark McGowan called Palmer the “greediest man in Australian history”.
From news.com.au, March 31, 2023:
“Australian business figure Clive Palmer is suing the Australian government for almost A$300 billion in an international tribunal.
“It comes after he lost a case against the Western Australian government that he took all the way to the High Court.
“The High Court is meant to be the ultimate arbiter of Australian legal disputes. But in 2019 while in conflict with the WA government Mr Palmer moved ownership of his two main Australian firms offshore, ultimately to a company he set up in Singapore, Zeph Investments Pte Ltd.
“As a Singapore-based company, Zeph believes it is able to take action against the Australian government that Australian-based companies cannot, using an obscure provision of the ASEAN-Australia New Zealand Free Trade Agreement.”
From Cambridge University Press, September 3, 2024
“Clive Palmer’s claims against Australia for billions renew pressure to remove investor rights to sue governments from trade agreements
“Australian debate over ISDS (Investor State Dispute Settlement) sharpened in 2023 because Australian mining billionaire Clive Palmer, having previously registered his mining company in Singapore, has claimed to be a Singaporean investor. He is using ISDS provisions in the 2012 ASEAN-Australia-New Zealand Free Trade Agreement and the amended 2017 Singapore-Australia Free Trade Agreement to sue the Australian government for a total of A$410 billion in three separate claims.”
Australian coal speculators are suing Alberta for lost profits. The case is schedule to start April 28 in the Court of King’s Bench.
Corporate greed knows no international boundaries:
"Canadian investors have initiated ISDS claims against 30 countries outside of North America, nearly half of which (26 cases) targeted countries in South and Central America.
Financial Implications:
The average claim involving a Canadian investor is an astonishing US$1.3 billion and the average award or settlement is US$929 million." Google
Read this today - a depressingly similar story
https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2025/mar/20/greenland-australian-mining-company