Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull says MP Clive Palmer should reach into his own pockets for the AU$73 Million owed to sacked workers of Queensland Nickel.  A scathing report from the company's administrators FTI Consulting says the Townsville operation collapsed because of Palmer's reckless - and possibly illegal - behavior.  Clive Palmer denies any wrongdoing.

Liquidation of Queensland Nickel automatically triggers the Fair Entitlements Guarantee, putting taxpayers on the hook for that $73 Million.  Employment Minister Michaelia Cash says the company needs to go into liquidation before any funds could be released from the federal safety net to cover the unpaid entitlements of 800 workers.

"Clive is responsible for this," said Ms. Cash to reporters.  "Clive is morally obliged, quite frankly, to pay over the entitlements to these workers.  I think it is a disgrace that Clive Palmer may well get off the hook."

Prime Minister Turnbull says if Mr. Palmer wants to hold himself up as a great businessman and philanthropist, now's the time to show it:

"There are men and women there in Townsville who have lost their jobs - they are entitled to payments.  Mr. Palmer should make those good," The PM said on 6PR Radio in Perth.  "That's the very least he could do in these circumstances, and I call on him to do just that."

FTI Consulting says the Townsville refinery might have survived the drop in nickel prices.  But the administrators accuse Palmer of using Queensland Nickel as a "piggy bank", shifting millions of dollars to other businesses in his empire.  And despite his denials, the administrators' report says, "Our observations indicate Mr. Palmer, a former director of the company, appears to have acted as a shadow/de facto director of QN at all material times from February 2012 up to the date of our appointment on 18 January 2016," , except when he held tenure as a director.  Palmer was a current signatory on three bank accounts in QN’s name, with the capacity to authorize transactions on these accounts solely and independently of the other authorized signatories, the report says.