Mr Palmer has come under heavy fire amid revelations his nickel refinery donated more than $21 million to PUP.
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The redundancies were announced on Friday after the Queensland Government refused to act as guarantor for a $35 million loan.
But the only public mention Mr Palmer has made about the refinery was a political retort against Townsville-based federal MP Ewen Jones, who suggested QNI should pay back donations made to Palmer United Party.
“Unfortunately, the government’s request for access to the full financial statements of Mr Palmer’s businesses was not responded to and we could not in all good conscience hand over money to a private company without full financial due diligence”.
When Mr Palmer took over the resort, which had been managed by the Hyatt, he promised workers their jobs would be safe.
He said if Mr Palmer was acting as a shadow director, that could raise an issue of personal liability for the payment of outstanding entitlements for axed workers.
Queensland Nickel managing director Clive Mensink believes the company will still have the ability to continue its operations and trade out of administration.
“As a company we made the decision to support PUP as one of its major policies was to abolish the carbon tax”, he says.
AAP has sought comment from Mr Mensink and Mr Palmer.
There has been speculation that Mr Palmer may switch to the Senate in a bid to gain re-election because of his unpopularity on the Coast, particularly after the loss of hundreds of jobs at the Palmer Coolum Resort.
There is also a cloud over the job security of a further 550 workers.
But Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who flew to Townsville for crisis talks and to meet affected workers, said Mr Palmer had a duty to tell his sacked workers if they’ll get their entitlements.
The price of nickel is at a decade low of about $3.75 per pound compared with $7 in 2009 when Palmer bought the operation from BHP Billiton.
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The government agency source said Queensland Nickel’s demise – should creditors vote to wind up the company for liquidation – risked drawing a reprise of protests against a government that had already weathered criticism for protecting the Australian company’s access to the market.
