Former Labor minister Stephen Conroy told Sky News host Peta Credlin he is “gobsmacked” by recent reports revealing the federal government spent 10 times the market value on a piece of land to be used for a Western Sydney Airport.
A report from the Australian National Audit Officer has revealed a block of land bought for nearly $30 million by the federal government in 2018 using taxpayer dollars was valued at about $3 million just one year later. The government purchased a 12.26 hectare piece of land in Leppington in July 2018 for $26.
7 million from the Leppington Pastoral Company to develop a second runway for the Western Sydney Airport in 30 years. Mr Conroy said the report made "no suggestion" Cabinet Minister Paul Fletcher, the urban infrastructure minister at the time, "had a clue" about the incorrect figures. “It goes on to say the information was not given to the minister,” Mr Conroy said.
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