CATHERINE KING – MEDIA RELEASE – AIRPORT LAND RORTS: MINISTER FLETCHER ADMITS HE RECEIVED BRIEFING – WEDNESDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2020

Minister Fletcher, one of the ministers responsible for the delivery of Western Sydney Airport, today admitted that he received a briefing on the acquisition of the Leppington Triangle, but failed to ask any of the relevant questions that could have stopped an additional $26.7m of taxpayer money flowing to a Liberal donor.

On Monday, the ANAO Audit Report stated that “formal briefings omitted relevant information, such as: the purchase price; that the price exceeded all known market valuations of the land; and the method of acquisition.”

It is almost unbelievable that Minister Fletcher would fail to ask questions after receiving such a brief. How can the minister not notice that the brief did not include a purchase price?

This is ministerial incompetence.

Either the minister didn’t read his brief, he read it and failed to spot the problem, or he read it and didn’t care.

As a result, the Morrison Government paid 10 times the value of the land, costing the taxpayer an additional $26.7m.

Along with Minister Fletcher, Prime Minister Morrison, the Deputy Prime Minister, the Minister for Finance and the now-Minister for Energy were all involved in the Western Sydney Airport project.

These ministers urgently need to address what they knew about this dodgy deal.

The Prime Minister must show some leadership on this matter immediately.

If Australians cannot trust the Morrison Government with this infrastructure spend, it will be impossible to trust them with future investments.

WEDNESDAY, 23 SEPTEMBER 2020