Clive Palmer has blamed everyone else - even his seven-year-old daughter - for the mess surrounding his embattled north Queensland nickel refinery.
The businessman-turned-politician on Monday held his first all-in media conference since Queensland Nickel was placed into voluntary administration and 237 workers were sacked in January.
The Brisbane event also came after the refinery's remaining 550 workers lost their jobs on Friday.
Mr Palmer used the press conference to outline five requirements that needed to be met for operations at the refinery to recommence from July.
He also blamed the state government for refusing to provide financial assistance to the refinery as it battled a slump in global commodity prices.
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The Fairfax MP hit out at the federal government for washing its hands of the saga altogether.
He pointed the finger at administrator FTI Consulting to explain why sacked workers hadn't been paid their entitlements.
"No person that works for me or any company associated with me has ever made a decision not to pay the workers' entitlements, that's the fact of the matter," Mr Palmer said.
"The first 230-odd people who were dismissed at Queensland Nickel, the administrator decided not to pay their entitlements and to deal with them under a deed of arrangement."
Mr Palmer said the remaining workers lost their jobs because "that was an administrator's decision, not our decision".
But perhaps most surprisingly, Mr Palmer blamed his seven-year-old daughter, Mary, for a tweet sent from his account to Queensland Treasurer Curtis Pitt after a new company he'd created, Queensland Nickel Sales, last week took over the refinery's management from under-administration Queensland Nickel Ltd.
The tweet featured a picture of a gnome giving a rude gesture along with the words "message to @curtis_pitt_mp from @PalmerUnitedParty #auspol #qldpol".
"Can I make a confession to you? My five-year-old (sic) daughter posted the gnome, I couldn't stop her ... my seven-year-old daughter," he said.
"She loves bald people."
Mr Palmer denied he was to blame for any of the refinery's woes or the associated fallout.
"You can blame me if you want to, because I am responsible for the movements in the national resources price, there's no doubt about that," he said sarcastically.
"I control every market for resources right throughout the world."
Mr Palmer said he had offered the administrator $250 million in coal assets to help pay workers' entitlements, but that would have to be put to creditors at a meeting in April.
He also listed requirements for the refinery to meet a projected reopening date of July 31, including the return of assets - including $10 million in cash - from the administrator.
Mr Palmer said the start date was so late because the administrator had cancelled ore orders and the next shipments would take weeks to arrive.
Meanwhile, about 300 sacked workers met in Townsville on Monday to vote in support of a community buy-back bid to become the refinery's joint owners.
Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk rejected state government support for the model, while Mr Palmer said he was open to suggestions but thought the plan was unfeasible.
