Hustle and bustle as Clive comes to Canberra - The Australian

Queenslanders Kevin Rudd and Clive Palmer enter the House of Representatives yesterday to take the oath of office. Picture: Ray Strange Source: News Limited

FEDERAL authorities are taking action to recover millions of dollars in carbon tax bills despite Clive Palmer's claim yesterday that he was not being forced to pay a $6.2 million debt for greenhouse gas emissions at his Queensland Nickel refinery.

The actions open the way for court proceedings as Mr Palmer faces questions over conflicts of interest between his business holdings and his influence in federal parliament on the repeal of the carbon and mining taxes.

As he sparked online mockery for copying a speech by a former US president, Mr Palmer declared he did not have to justify his refusal to pay a legally incurred debt under the law despite becoming a legislator himself.

"I don't have to justify it, that's just the reality of it," he told reporters at the National Press Club.

"It's not me complying with anything. Companies I own are not me. I'm a different person. I can think, I'm flesh and blood. Companies are not."

Mr Palmer is the ultimate owner of Queensland Nickel, one of the nation's biggest greenhouse gas emitters. While 370 companies paid their carbon obligations, Mr Palmer is challenging the legislation in the High Court.

"We've got a challenge before the courts and the management of Queensland Nickel have decided that until that challenge is made, they won't be paying the tax," Mr Palmer said.

The Australian has been told authorities are taking action to force the payments because the debts are recoverable under section 136 of the Clean Energy Act.

Tony Abbott sent a warning shot to Mr Palmer and others yesterday by saying everyone with a carbon tax liability had to pay it.

"They've got to pay their bills, obviously, and everyone's bills will be lower if my bill to repeal the carbon tax is passed," he said, as he took aim at Bill Shorten for resisting the repeal.

About 370 companies had to pay the carbon tax in June but only four refused Queensland Nickel, Penrice Soda and two companies in the Gujarat NRE coal group.

The Clean Energy Regulator said last night that companies would pay a 20 per cent penalty on the amount each year until they paid the debt, but it would not comment on individual cases.

The regulator said a decision on legal action would be taken if it believed it could not reach "satisfactory arrangements" on the debt.

Mr Palmer dismissed questions about his personal business after making a speech to the National Press Club that used an anecdote told more than 50 years ago by John F. Kennedy.

The speech recounted the failure by Karl Marx in 1851 to get a pay rise as a journalist in London, leading him to quit the job and pursue his political interests.

"If only Marx had remained a foreign correspondent, the world might be a different place and the 20th century wouldn't have so much suffering," Mr Palmer said.

Mr Kennedy made the same point in a speech in 1961: "If only this capitalistic New York newspaper had treated him more kindly; if only Marx had remained a foreign correspondent, history might have been different."

The carbon bill is only one of the financial pressures facing Mr Palmer as the Queensland government asks him to increase the capacity of a dam at the refinery to prevent contaminated water spreading to the Great Barrier Reef.