The minister who oversaw the purchase of a piece of land next to the Western Sydney Airport in 2018 has pleaded ignorance over the $30 million price paid by taxpayers in a deal excoriated by the Auditor-General | katinacurtis
The minister who oversaw the purchase of a piece of land next to the Western Sydney Airport in 2018 has pleaded ignorance over theInfrastructure Department officials didn't tell Paul Fletcher, who was urban infrastructure minister at the time of the deal, the sale price for the 12 hectares of land, which the Commonwealth valued at just $3 million a year after the purchase.
But Mr Fletcher, now the Communications Minister, says he only became aware of the issue when he read the auditor-general's report, which was released on Monday."[The price] was not in the brief that came to me, that's what the auditor-general's report says," Mr Fletcher said on Wednesday. The audit report says department officials did not act ethically when briefing their superiors and ministers.
Opposition infrastructure spokeswoman Catherine King said it was unbelievable the minister wouldn't have asked for the price or whether it was value for money for taxpayers."It is just absolutely incompetence of the highest order to not bother - he needs to say what did he do to inform himself that what he was signing off on was value for money, that the processes had been undertaken correctly," she said.
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