“He´s got nothing, and I´m Marilyn Monroe, and she´s the Queen of England...”

Such was the response to the interview Amanda Larkins, Christopher Skase's daughter, gave to the Bulletin on Wednesday from the Australian Minister for Justice, Amanda Vanstone. Amanda Larkins said that her critically ill father, facing expulsion from Spain, has no assets in Majorca, neither owned their previous home nor has any financial interests in their current farmhouse. Vanstone rejected suggestions by Amanda Larkins that her father was broke saying “he's got nothing, and I'm Marilyn Monroe, she's the Queen of England - we've heard it all before.” However Vanstone did say that Christopher Skase could end the federal government's efforts to get him back to Australia by submitting to an independent medical test, which Skase's Palma doctor is prepared to allow. Vanstone said the government would not accept claims by Skase's family or his doctors that he has stomach cancer and is too sick to return to Australia. The government will nevertheless respect any medical ailment facing Skase if it were proven independently. But until that happened Vanstone made it clear that the battle to get Skase back to Australia will continue. A leading Australian lawyer is reported to have said yesterday that even if Skase, now a citizen of the Commonwealth of Dominica, did return to Australia, it would take about two years to launch court proceedings and that the court case surrounding the 30 corporate charges of fraud relating to the AUS$1.5 billion collapse of his Qintenx business empire in 1991, could take as long as 12 months to conclude. The delegation of Australian media currently on the island have now shifted their attention from Skase and his family to the lawyer. While Skase has appealed against the expulsion order, the big question now is how long will this next process take.