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Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull has blasted Clive Palmer's "shocking" management of Queensland Nickel, predicting the embattled MP's time as owner of the refinery is coming to an end.
The company sacked 237 workers at its Yabulu refinery near Townsville earlier in January and is now in administration. A creditors' meeting will be held in Townsville on Friday and Mr Palmer won't be attending.
Mr Turnbull said on Friday that Mr Palmer, the member for Fairfax and leader of the Palmer United Party, said he had "let down the workers there".
"His management of Queensland Nickel, from what we know to date, is shocking," Mr Turnbull told 3AW's Neil Mitchell.
"It's been a very disappointing - very disappointing for someone that's sought to hold himself up as a champion."
Mr Turnbull said "time will tell" whether the voters of Fairfax will view Mr Palmer as a fit and proper person to be in federal parliament.
"The only thing I'm concerned about, frankly, with that mine, that smelter, I should say, is that the industry continues, the jobs continue, the workers are looked after," he said.
"We're doing everything we can to ensure that, but I think Mr Palmer's - I would forecast that Mr Palmer's time as the owner of that will be coming to an end."
Mr Palmer responded on Friday, saying Mr Turnbull's comments were part of a concerted campaign by the Liberal and Labor parties to "wind me up politically".
"Is this guy really serious? All this does, with Turnbull making these statements, is demonstrate, absolutely, that this is a political witch hunt," he said.
Mr Palmer in turn attacked the Prime Minister over his offshore investments.
"Unlike the Prime Minister who invests his wealth in the Cayman Islands, I am a proud Australian who has invested hundreds of millions of dollars in Queensland and Queensland companies because I believe in the future of this country," Mr Palmer said.
"Mr Turnbull should lead by example. If the head of this country won't invest in Australia, why would anybody else?
Mr Palmer has said he has been demonised by his political rivals and that the refinery was going to close in 2009 if he did not take it over.
The pair of multi-millionaire MPs attracted headlines in 2014 when they held a number of secret meetings. At the time, Mr Palmer described them as social meetings, saying he had sent a "personal invitation to have dinner with Malcolm because I've known him for many years. It was just social chit-chat."
