Angus Taylor has declared he is moving on from the controversy sparked by his erroneous attack on the City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore because “two independent police forces” have examined the issues and the Australian federal police says the investigation is over.
After the AFP commissioner, Reece Kershaw, told a Senate estimates hearing in Canberra the decision not to investigate allegations against Taylor was considered and objective, and the case would not be re-opened, Taylor said it was time to move on.
“We’ve had two independent police forces look at this … I’ve cooperated with them at each stage,” Taylor told the ABC on Monday night. “They have both considered and closed this matter, and the AFP commissioner said today the matter is finalised, full stop”.
“I’m getting on with my job”.
Kershaw faced sustained questioning at Senate estimates on Monday about what the AFP did to investigate allegations Taylor relied on a falsified document to launch an attack on City of Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore about her travel-related carbon emissions.
The AFP decided last month not to investigate the matter because it had “determined it is unlikely further investigation will result in obtaining sufficient evidence to substantiate a commonwealth offence”.
It had previously emerged that police did not interview Taylor or Moore before dropping the investigation.
The Greens senator Nick McKim asked Kershaw why his officers didn’t simply pick up the phone and ask Taylor about the allegations, given his signature was on a document containing false information.
Kershaw said the AFP does not “operate like that”.
He also ruled out any prospect of re-opening the investigation, saying:
“The matter is finalised – full stop.”
Kershaw was unable to immediately answer a series of questions from Labor senator Kristina Keneally about what steps police took to test Taylor’s claim that he downloaded the erroneous information from an annual report on the City of Sydney website.
Taylor says he downloaded the erroneous document in early September before providing it to the Daily Telegraph, which subsequently ran a piece attacking Moore’s travel expenditure and associated emissions.
Keneally asked whether police had examined Google Analytics, showing that the annual report in question was only downloaded 13 times in the four-day window relevant to Taylor’s defence. She asked whether police had accessed City of Sydney metadata, interviewed the council’s staff, Daily Telegraph journalists, environment department officials or anyone from Taylor’s office, or Josh Manuatu, a former Taylor staffer.
Kershaw took all of those questions on notice.
The questioning at times prompted outrage from Liberal senators. McKim suggested the AFP was running a “protection racket” for Taylor, a comment described by Liberal senator Sarah Henderson as “appalling”.
Keneally asked the AFP whether its investigations had considered the possibility that Taylor’s wife, Louise Clegg, planned to run for the City of Sydney lord mayorship.
“I think it’s quite relevant,” Keneally responded when her questioning drew condemnation. “We have a federal minister who used a doctored document to attack not only his political rival in terms of policy terms, but also potentially his wife’s rival in political terms.”
“The police have decided to discontinue the investigation, not to proceed to an investigation, it’s well within my rights to ask these questions.”
Clegg said the claim was completely false and she had no intention of running for the position.
“I am not running, have never planned to run and am ineligible to run for the position of Lord Mayor of the City of Sydney Council,” she said.
“This is an attack on a member of parliament’s family for political purposes.”
Kershaw said the decision not to investigate was partly shaped by a recent review of the AFP’s handling of sensitive matters, conducted by John Lawler.
That review was launched in the wake of the raids on the ABC and recommended that the AFP consider the level of harm in potential allegations before deciding whether to investigate.
The AFP deputy commissioner, Ian McCartney, has previously described the Taylor matter as presenting a “low level of ongoing harm”.
Kershaw said operational priorities and resourcing were also factors in the decision, as was Taylor’s apology to Moore.
Keneally asked how the AFP could determine the level of harm without having interviewed Moore, the victim.
“How do you make a determination of harm and a decision not to continue to an investigation without speaking to the victim?”
Kershaw said the decision was objective and considered, and backed the officers and oversight team responsible.
• This article was amended on 3 March 2020. A previous version suggested Kristina Keneally asked the AFP whether it had considered the fact that Louise Clegg planned to run for City of Sydney lord mayor. Keneally actually asked whether the AFP had considered the possibility that Clegg would run for lord mayor.
