Billionaire Clive Palmer is using his private company's ongoing stoush with its estranged Chinese joint venture partner as a reason for not delivering a decade-old promise to donate $100 million to Aboriginal communities.
The 2008 agreement between the West Australian government, his firm Mineralogy and CITIC Pacific for the massive Sino Iron project in the Pilbara included Mr Palmer's company setting up a charitable foundation to fund medical research and support indigenous people.
The Australian Charities and Not-for-Profits Commission's website shows the Palmer Care Foundation was set up in 2012 but only had $109 at the end of June 2017, which is the most recently lodged financial report.
Mineralogy won a court case against CITIC over royalties in 2017 and has been paid hundreds of millions of dollars by the state-owned company, including for the rights to mine Mr Palmer's land, but they are now in a legal battle over environmental rehabilitation costs.
In Perth on Friday to spruik his United Australia Party, Mr Palmer, who recently boasted his wealth totalled $4 billion, denied he had broken his promise, despite the charity not yet making a grant.
"The Chinese government failed to pay $1 billion to our company and that particular provision (in the state agreement) was included to assist the Chinese government in gaining access to develop further projects in Western Australia," he told reporters.
"Once they've paid us and once they're meeting their full obligations, we'll meet those obligations."
Mr Palmer, who has spent an estimated $50 million on his party's federal election campaign, said Mineralogy had been "independently funding Aboriginal activities from other things".
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