John Faulkner (NSW, Australian Labor Party) Share this | Hansard source

In my view it is untenable and unacceptable for the Assistant Treasurer, if he is to remain in that position, to fail to make now a full, complete and comprehensive statement to the parliament about all aspects of his involvement in Australian Water Holdings, given the circumstances we face. The facts of the matter are these. Senator Sinodinos made a statement in the Senate about these matters on 28 February last year. That, of course, was before he was sworn in as Assistant Treasurer. Since that time, all Senator Sinodinos has been willing to do or say in the chamber is that he has stood by that earlier statement. I say that is no longer good enough. I certainly say that is no longer tenable.

Why? Because there is now incontrovertible evidence that Senator Sinodinos's statement of last year, for whatever reason, was not complete, was not accurate and cannot stand. My leader, Senator Wong, has mentioned three elements, and I would reinforce those. In Senator Sinodinos's statement to the Senate last year he said he had no role. He said:

I played no role in the awarding of the January 2012 contract to AWH by Sydney Water.

But we now know he wrote on 29 August a letter copied to the Premier and finance minister about the contractual relationship between AWH and Sydney Water. As a result of evidence in ICAC yesterday we now know further to that that he was present at a meeting about contractual arrangements on 6 September 2011 between AWH and Sydney Water.

We also know that Senator Sinodinos served concurrently as first a non-executive director of AWH and then as its chairman and, at the same time, in a role in the New South Wales division of the Liberal Party as both the treasurer and its president. He said in his statement last year that, at that time, donations from AWH were handled by the management of the organisation at their discretion. We now hear this from counsel assisting the Independent Commission Against Corruption in New South Wales: 'From the records I have seen it seems that Sydney Water has unwillingly, unknowingly, been a principal donor to the Liberal Party. But, at the time, Sydney Water could not and would not have known that this was occurring and could not get access to the documents which would have established that it was occurring. All it knew was that the administration costs were excessive, and this blew up into a dispute.'

I do believe it is untenable to argue, given the positions that Senator Sinodinos held, that either as a director or chairman on the one hand, or as an official of the Liberal Party on the other hand, he knew nothing about this. He should have, if he did not. Finally, I point out that the personal loan agreement with members of the Obeid family, which Senator Sinodinos informed the Senate about in his statement, is a sham as well. That personal loan agreement was in fact a 30 per cent shareholding in AWH. Yes, there are issues that should be addressed in this chamber. Yes, Senator Sinodinos's previous statement was incomplete, appears inaccurate and certainly demands further clarification. (Time expired)