Clive Palmer drops WA case, Christian Porter leaves $300b lawsuit against Australia

Christian Porter is unlikely to act for Clive Palmer on a $300 billion claim for damages against Australia after the Commonwealth raised concerns about the former attorney-general’s involvement in the international arbitration case. Mr Porter was listed as the lead lawyer among a group of 10 legal counsel in the notice of arbitration Mr Palmer’s Singapore-based company Zeph Investments served on the Commonwealth, as revealed in the West in March. However, The West now understands the Commonwealth raised a concern with Mr Porter and the company that a conflict of interest might arise if he were to appear in a future hearing on the case. The suit under international trade law claims Zeph is owed nearly $300 billion in damages related to Mr Palmer’s massive iron ore project in the Pilbara after the WA Government legislated to end an earlier round of arbitration and absolve itself of liability. Earlier court documents relating to the case show Zeph Investments first delivered a request for consultations over a dispute in the relevant free trade deal to the Commonwealth on October 14, 2020. The Attorney-General’s Department responded on the matter on November 24, 2020. Mr Porter was the attorney-general at that time. A spokesman for Mr Palmer on Tuesday said, “Mr Porter remains engaged by Palmer entities in a range of matters. Our position on whether to use Mr Porter in the international arbitration hearing is reserved.” Mr Porter would not comment on client matters. However, The West believes he is working on unrelated matters but will not work on the international arbitration without an independent process testing the Commonwealth’s claims of conflict. The Federal Government had 30 days from the March 28 notice of arbitration to file a response. It has also emerged that Mr Palmer has dropped his final two lawsuits against WA, marking the end of well over two years of costly and protracted court skirmishes between the billionaire and the McGowan Government. The mining billionaire’s spokesman confirmed on Tuesday the legal guns long trained on WA had fallen silent as the Queenslander instead pins his hopes on the unprecedented $300 billion damages claim. “A requirement of our international arbitration is that we cannot have other legal proceedings running concurrently, and therefore have withdrawn all other proceedings in relation to this matter,” he said. In December, Mark McGowan revealed a defamation suit brought by Mr Palmer - which prompted the Premier to counter-sue - had cost taxpayers more than $2 million, despite the Queenslander being ordered to pay $445,700 in court costs. At that point in time 11 of 13 cases brought by Mr Palmer in courtrooms across the country had been finalised. All of those suits related either to the Bill that killed off Mr Palmer’s arbitration claim or his previous attempts to tear down WA’s hard border. Two cases were still ongoing: the first a Queensland Court of Appeal hearing where Mr Palmer’s company Mineralogy was attempting to overturn a decision to set aside his arbitral awards, while the second in the Federal Court challenged the validity of provisions in the legislation that extinguished Mr Palmer’s right to arbitration. Both of those final two proceedings have now been withdrawn - although Mr McGowan said Mr Palmer’s latest $300 billion lawsuit meant West Australians were still on the hook. “Clive Palmer is still going after Western Australians, just through a different avenue - an avenue he chose to pursue so he can continue his latest costly legal fight,” he said. “As well as attempting to tear down our hard border at the height of the pandemic, Clive Palmer tried to sue every man, woman and child in WA for $12,000 each. Now he’s going after all Australians for a total of $300 billion. “It would be my strong preference that we didn’t have to use time and resources in court on these matters, but we will never apologise for defending Western Australians from Clive Palmer’s endless legal attacks.”