Clive Palmer has failed to hand over documents showing communications between himself and nephew Clive Mensink to the Federal Court.
The former federal MP was last week ordered to provide telephone records, emails, texts, letters, voice recordings and other materials dating as far back as June 1, 2016.
The directions were made as part of the public examination by liquidators into the collapse of Queensland Nickel.
Liquidators Stephen Parbery and Michael Owen have been trying to locate former director Mr Mensink since he left Australia two years ago, in a bid to question him.
Mr Palmer's barrister Edmund Robinson told the court on Thursday his client had provided a sworn statement explaining why he had not abided by the order.
"It effectively explains that in respect of most of the categories of documents there are no documents to produce," he said.
But Mr Robinson said in some other instances it was simply too large a task that would "take at least a couple of months" to complete.
The liquidators' barrister, Angela Rae, said that was not a sufficient response to the court order to produce documents.
She also claimed there was an inconsistency between what they were told would be provided and the excuse given on Thursday.
Registrar Murray Belcher said because Mr Palmer hadn't been in court when the order was made, he hadn't had an opportunity to argue that perhaps the net had been "cast too wide".
He asked the parties to work together to agree on what documents could be provided.
Registrar Belcher said if they couldn't reach a resolution by next week, he would resolve it for them.
The court heard Westpac, Telstra and All Way Travel had complied with orders to provide Mr Mensink's bank, telephone and travel records.
His son, Ryan Mensink, also supplied documents before his questioning on June 29, but Vodafone did not.
Mr Palmer has until June 27 to comply with the court order, as does his employee Craig Gunnis.
