The Lord Mayor of Sydney, Clover Moore, has demanded the prime minister, Scott Morrison, explain to parliament how his energy minister, Angus Taylor, came to rely on a false document that was used to accuse her of hypocrisy on climate change, after the Australian Federal Police declined to investigate.
The AFP announced on Thursday it would not investigate the doctored document scandal further, saying it was unlikely a commonwealth offence had been committed and there was no evidence that Taylor had been involved in falsifying the document.
The decision has outraged Moore and the opposition, which had initially referred the matter to the NSW police.
Moore said she still did not know how Taylor came by a page of the City of Sydney’s annual report, which contained incorrect figures and which showed that the City of Sydney had spent $15m on travel. The real figures, available online, show it was a fraction of that.
“He didn’t give me any explanation about how that happened. I still don’t know why the minister did that, why he signed that letter,” she told ABC radio.
The incorrect figures were included in a letter Taylor sent to Moore criticising her declaration of a climate emergency and suggesting she curtail her travel instead. The letter was then leaked to the Telegraph, which mocked her declaration publicly.
Moore said that Taylor’s apology, made in parliament a month ago, was not sufficient.
“Does he not think that climate change is important? That my reputation is not important?”
Moore said the prime minister should now investigate the matter and report to parliament, as the matter still raised important questions of ministerial conduct.
But she added that she would not be pursuing the matter further and would extend focus on the business of the city.
The City of Sydney announced on Thursday that it would bring forward its goal of reaching zero net emissions from 2050 to 2040 – ten years earlier.
In a clear criticism of the Morrison government’s record and Taylor, the minister for emissions reduction, she said: “It is incumbent on us as a rich country to do all we can to reduce emissions so we can then put pressure on the large emitters to do their part.”
Taylor has welcomed the news that the AFP would not be investigating further and accused Labor of a “track record of using police referrals as a political tool”.
“The leader of the opposition [Anthony Albanese] and shadow attorney general [Mark Dreyfus]’s pursuit of this matter is a shameful abuse of their office and a waste of our policing agencies’ time,” he said in a statement.
Dreyfus and the shadow climate change minister, Mark Butler, said that “serious questions remain unanswered” about the scandal because “two police investigations have now failed to clarify where Angus Taylor got his dodgy figures from”.
The Guardian is currently seeking a review of a Freedom of Information request that sought documents. Taylor’s office refused to release several documents, including one which was described as an email from “an external third party”. It was withheld on the grounds that it would adversely affect the business affairs of that person.
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