CATHERINE KING – MEDIA RELEASE – ESTIMATES REVEAL $30M PRICETAG WAS PRE-PLANNED – MONDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2020

Evidence heard in Senate Estimates has cast even more doubt over the Morrison Government’s program of infrastructure investment, with revelations that the Department of Infrastructure had budgeted “in the order of $30m” for the purchase of the Leppington Triangle even before their dodgy valuation and acquisition process.

The acquisition of land should always be based on fair value, not on opaque predeterminations as it seems to have been on this occasion.

At the same hearing, it was revealed that the Deputy Prime Minister has known of the AFP investigation since the 9^th of October – a fact which was only publicly revealed Friday afternoon, after inquiries from journalists.

The AFP’s announcement came after the Deputy Prime Minister suggested the land deal would be remembered as “a good decision”, and that people would look back and say, “what a bargain that was” – a statement his Department Secretary refused to back.

When he was asked about it, the Prime Minister brushed it off as a “process” issue.

If one of the Morrison Government’s largest infrastructure projects can include such apparently premediated overspends questions have to be raised about their entire infrastructure program.

The only way the Prime Minister can rebuild trust in his Government is to step up, legislate a National Integrity Commission, and ensure that dodgy deals like this can never occur again. 

MONDAY, 19 OCTOBER 2020