Embattled billionaire turned bankrupt Nathan Tinkler has his sights set on re-entering the mining world: but he must first fight for permission to fly to New York for the opportunity.
Mr Tinkler appeared in the Federal Court on Tuesday in a bid for permission to leave the country to attend a job interview on February 1, citing difficulties in securing employment at home, and to spend more than two months with his children in Hawaii.
Federal Court judge John Nicholas granted an urgent hearing scheduled for Friday morning, after Mr Tinkler failed to get permission from bankruptcy trustee Ferrier Hodgson's John Melluish, who has his passport.
"He's concerned he'll lose the opportunity to regenerate that interview," Mr Tinkler's counsel Paul McQuade, QC, pleaded with the judge.
Mr Tinkler has been unemployed since September 30 last year, Mr McQuade said, noting "difficulties he's been having arranging interviews".
Mr Tinkler was bankrupted in February last year with combined debts of more than $500 million to a variety of creditors, including Credit Suisse, the Australian Taxation Office and retailer Gerry Harvey.
The bankruptcy forced him to relinquish his board role on ASX-listed Australian Pacific Coal, but Mr Tinkler still has an ownership stake in the company which enabled him to ride a rise in coal prices towards the end of 2016. He attempted to settle the bankruptcy at 0.12 cents in the dollar at the end of last year.
Hawaii-bound
Manhattan job interview aside, the destination for the offshore sojourn is Hawaii, where Mr Tinkler's four eldest children live on the island of Maui with his ex-wife Rebecca Tinkler. In a letter to the trustee, Mr Tinkler's father details how he will pay for the trip, which is to last 10 weeks.
Mr Tinkler plans to arrive before Mrs Tinkler leaves for her own overseas holiday on January 30, for "personal reasons". He will travel with his two youngest children and their mother — his fiance Jodie Van Gilst — from their home base in Coffs Harbour on the north coast of New South Wales.
Counsel for the trustee, Bridges Lawyers partner Kylie Rae, said that the trustee was not informed of the travel plans of Mr Tinkler's ex-wife's at the time of the travel request on January 13, nor the job interview despite the date being set roughly two days earlier.
"We don't know who it's with..."
Ms Rae criticised the evidence of the interview in New York as "with respect, wholly unhelpful" because it was almost entirely redacted.
"We don't know who it's with... somebody in Manhattan... that's not something discussed with the trustee until his solicitors wrote [in late January]," she told the court.
The trustee is demanding books and records from the once-billionaire in support of his request.
Justice Nicholas said that he was concerned about "unfairness and prejudice to the trustee in being forced on on Friday, in circumstances where the trustee isn't in the position to properly assess this request".
Expressing his reluctance, the judge set an urgent hearing date for Friday at 11am. All parties will appear in Sydney. On Tuesday, Mr Tinkler and his counsel were in Brisbane, linked to the Sydney court by videoconference; an arrangement the judge questioned.
He gave Mr Tinkler's team a little over an hour to file a supporting affidavit from the solicitors, and until 6pm to file an outline.
"I think you'll just have to make that happen," he ordered.
katie.walsh@fairfaxmedia.com.au
