Ms Catherine King (Ballarat, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Minister for Infrastructure, Transport and Regional Development) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

My question is to the Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts. Can the minister confirm that he signed a brief on 1 February 2018 about the Leppington Triangle purchase for 10 times its value? The land evaluation was jointly conducted with the landowner. The department proposed a persuasive package of incentives for the landholder, and the deal would be kept secret. How could the minister possibly say this rotten deal for taxpayers 'seems perfectly sensible to me'?

Paul Fletcher (Bradfield, Liberal Party, Minister for Communications, Urban Infrastructure, Cities and the Arts) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

I do thank the shadow minister for her question, and I make the point that the Auditor-General's report to which she referred said:

The approach taken by the department of omitting key information in the briefings to decision-makers and Ministers was inappropriate and inconsistent with acting ethically.

So the Auditor-General's report itself made it clear that inaccurate information was provided in the brief and also made it clear that the decision-maker was not the minister but the deputy secretary of the department. But it's also noteworthy, Mr Speaker, that if you go to the Sententia report tabled to a Senate committee, an independent audit of the department's decision-making, the lead reviewer of this report was a former national president of the Institute of Internal Auditors in Australia. That report found:

It is likely that the land had value to both the seller and the Commonwealth above and beyond the 'going rate' for agricultural land in Western Sydney.

…   …   …

The determination of the amount to pay for a property is a judgement—

was the wording of the independent audit—

Officers exercised that judgment in the case of the Leppington Triangle, and paid a price per square metre that is not inconsistent with numerous recent transactions in the region.

Those are not my words but the words of an independent review.

Let's be clear: we are getting on with delivering Western Sydney Airport. For six years, the Leader of the Opposition was the responsible portfolio minister and he could not get it delivered. It took our government, in 2014, to make a commitment to deliver Western Sydney Airport. We've committed to spend $5.3 billion on delivering Western Sydney Airport and, as we speak, we are now at a point where earth-moving is extremely well advanced and we're on track to commence construction of the terminal within coming months. We are getting on with delivering this transformational project which the Leader of the Opposition never managed to make progress on.