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Attorney-General John Quigley threatens to seize Clive Palmer’s jet over legal costs owed to WA

Troy de RuyterThe West Australian
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VideoIn Up Late, Ben Harvey divulges how deep Clive Palmers pockets are - making a million dollars a day out of WA. Also, the real reason behind the Premier’s house hunting jaunt.

WA’s Attorney-General has threatened to seize Clive Palmer’s plane — and send him back to Queensland by train — if the billionaire does not pay up for legal fees owed to the State.

John Quigley said that the mining magnate owed WA $1 million after his failed High Court challenge to the State’s COVID hard border — and he would probably need to pay another $1 million in costs after his unsuccessful bid to extract $30 billion from the State in his Mineralogy lawsuit.

“What worries me is he challenged our border ... then went down to the High Court in Canberra, then we won that case,” Mr Quigley told The West Live this morning.

“Then we put in our bill for costs to Mr Palmer, he owes us $1 million — he just won’t write out a cheque — so he owes the State $1 million for the border challenge.

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“And this one will cost him another $1 million in costs, that’s $2 million.

“If he doesn’t promptly pay this $1 million ... this $2 million ... the next time he flies to WA as soon as we lift our border restriction, I’m going to have the sheriff arrest his plane — seize his plane and sell it and he can catch the train home.

“This is outrageous that this man keeps on taking us to the High Court and then refusing to pay the WA taxpayers bill.”

Mr Quigley then doubled down on his threat.

“I’m serious, if that plane comes into WA, I’m going to ask the sheriff to seize it,” he said.

This morning, the High Court ruled on the side of the WA Government — backing its extraordinary legislation blocking Mr Palmer from suing the State for $30 billion in damages.

The mining magnate was chasing the astronomical figure after a decision by the former Liberal government not to assess one of his mining projects.

The 2012 decision blocked Mr Palmer from developing the Balmoral South iron ore project in the Pilbara region.

Mr Palmer was claiming an amount equal to WA’s entire Budget — the equivalent of a $12,000 bill for every man, woman and child in the State.

Clive Palmer has been stumped by the High Court.
Camera IconClive Palmer has been stumped by the High Court. Credit: Mark Cranitch/News Corp Australia

Mr Quigley said he was satisfied with the judgment.

“Very, very relieved on behalf all Western Australians that we’ve seen Mr Palmer off in his greedy claim, in his greedy lunge for our money,” he said.

“It was a big responsibility as Attorney-General to be the minister responsible for repelling him.

“I was very confident right from the outset that I stood up and introduced this law into Parliament that it was constitutional.

“We’d done a lot work over the last winter break ... we just worked nonstop to get this into perfect shape and as the High Court has adjudged, it was a good law.”

Separate defamation suits from Premier Mark McGowan and Mr Palmer are still rumbling through the Federal Court.

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