politics

A quick reminder Clive Palmer's poetry is a big ol' distraction from his legal troubles.

It’s easy to like Clive Palmer when he’s not a member of parliament. Too easy.

Since he’s stopped dozing in the House of Representatives and counting his wad of cash on taxpayer-funded time, the former leader of the Palmer United Party has dramatically slimmed down and, more recently, rediscovered his penchant for poetry.

But while the lamington lover has been winning us over with whimsy, he’s also been in the midst of a gruelling legal battle over his collapsed mining company, Queensland Nickel.

Yes, while we’ve been cooing over his moondogs and mocking birds on social media, Palmer has been in and out of the Queensland Supreme Court this month, where his businesses are currently being probed by liquidators.

Australia, it seems we’ve been had.

Crap.

For those who've forgotten, Queensland Nickel went into voluntary administration at the beginning of last year.

It was $300 million in the red after allegedly donating tens of millions of dollars to PUP, including more than an alleged $700,000 during Palmer's time as director.

There are also claims he was secretly keeping a hand in operations after stepping down.

Meanwhile, 800 factory workers in Townsville lost their jobs when the company folded.

Just on Monday, the Federal Court in Brisbane heard about a mysterious woman who the company reportedly paid a staggering $1 million to investigate mining opportunities in Kyrgyzstan.

Here's what Palmer was up to on Twitter that day:

Buzzfeed's Mark Di Stefano asked a number of journalists who've been covering the billionaire's antics for years what, exactly, the deal is.

“When Clive is under significant pressure, he throws the switch to vaudeville and creates this entertaining deflection," The Australian’s Hedley Thomas explained.

"It distracts attention from scrutiny [of] the problem he is facing."

So, as easy as it is to be baited by 'Clive's pie sandwich', it's probably worth reflecting on what he's really up to before biting down.

Contrary to his profile pic, he is certainly no angel.