2 years ago
PAUL FLETCHER’S "PERFECTLY SENSIBLE" LAND PURCHASE
CATHERINE KING MP
The Government has tabled a signed ministerial brief in which Paul Fletcher describes the scandalous purchase of the Leppington Triangle for $30 million as “perfectly sensible”. The document underlines the Morrison Government’s inept management of major infrastructure projects and its ongoing misuse of taxpayer funds and raises serious questions that deserve answers.
Addressed to the returned Minister for Urban Infrastructure, Paul Fletcher, and implicating the returned Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, the brief describes the Leppington Triangle as being a “small parcel of land”, but then describes the purchase price of $30 million as reasonable, “albeit reflecting the recent sharp rise in property prices in the area.”
Without any further explanation, the brief claims that “a small window of opportunity for the purchase” existed due to the “mutual goodwill that exists between [the landholders and the Commonwealth.]”
Given the landholders received $27 million more than the property was worth and were then able to lease the property back from the Commonwealth on favourable terms, it's not hard to guess where this goodwill came from.
Hinting at the resulting scandal and attempted cover up, the brief notes the potential public interest in the purchase and offers the Minister talking points with which to explain the high price.
The brief even outlines the close relations between the government and the landholders.
All this for a piece of land later valued at only $3 million.
No wonder the Morrison Government hid this document for ten months after it was ordered to be produced by the Senate.
It is extraordinary that any minister could read this brief and conclude that it “seems perfectly sensible to me”.
It is even more extraordinary that both ministers who received this brief have since returned to the same portfolios.
At best, these two ministers are incompetent. The Prime Minister and his Ministers need to explain why their own officials chose to appropriate $32 million for this and other transactions even before negotiations with landholders had commenced.
Australians deserve so much better than a tired old government that has now brought them Airport Rorts, Sports Rorts, Car Park Rorts, Building Better Regions Rorts and Safer Communities Rorts.
Australians deserve an Albanese Labor Government they can trust and a real National Anti-Corruption Commission.
Addressed to the returned Minister for Urban Infrastructure, Paul Fletcher, and implicating the returned Deputy Prime Minister, Barnaby Joyce, the brief describes the Leppington Triangle as being a “small parcel of land”, but then describes the purchase price of $30 million as reasonable, “albeit reflecting the recent sharp rise in property prices in the area.”
Without any further explanation, the brief claims that “a small window of opportunity for the purchase” existed due to the “mutual goodwill that exists between [the landholders and the Commonwealth.]”
Given the landholders received $27 million more than the property was worth and were then able to lease the property back from the Commonwealth on favourable terms, it's not hard to guess where this goodwill came from.
Hinting at the resulting scandal and attempted cover up, the brief notes the potential public interest in the purchase and offers the Minister talking points with which to explain the high price.
The brief even outlines the close relations between the government and the landholders.
All this for a piece of land later valued at only $3 million.
No wonder the Morrison Government hid this document for ten months after it was ordered to be produced by the Senate.
It is extraordinary that any minister could read this brief and conclude that it “seems perfectly sensible to me”.
It is even more extraordinary that both ministers who received this brief have since returned to the same portfolios.
At best, these two ministers are incompetent. The Prime Minister and his Ministers need to explain why their own officials chose to appropriate $32 million for this and other transactions even before negotiations with landholders had commenced.
Australians deserve so much better than a tired old government that has now brought them Airport Rorts, Sports Rorts, Car Park Rorts, Building Better Regions Rorts and Safer Communities Rorts.
Australians deserve an Albanese Labor Government they can trust and a real National Anti-Corruption Commission.