The New South Wales transport minister, Andrew Constance, will face renewed pressure over his knowledge of a $53.5m purchase of land in Parramatta with a key briefing paper showing he was warned it was heavily contaminated.
The NSW upper house will on Wednesday vote on whether the matter should be referred to the state’s anti-corruption commission, after the Sydney Morning Herald and ABC revealed the government paid three times the estimated value for the heavily contaminated piece of land in June 2016. The land at Camellia was needed for a stabling and maintenance facility for the Parramatta light rail project.
Labor has seized on a sensitive ministerial briefing obtained separately by the Guardian and the Sydney Morning Herald, which shows Constance was warned prior to the purchase that the land was contaminated.
The briefing, dated April 2016, shows Constance was told that compulsory acquisition of the land from the developer Billbergia may be necessary because it “appears unlikely that an agreement on compensation will be achieved”.
The briefing also warned that the land was contaminated and was listed on the environmental watchdog’s register.
“Compulsory acquisition of the site will be on an ‘as is’ basis with TfNSW dependent on the valuer general making an allowance for site clean-up and a site audit statement for a suitable use in the determination of compensation. TfNSW will then need to undertake the remediation works, to a level suitable for the Depot use.”
Another document, dated six months after the purchase, reportedly shows that the land was worthless.
The shadow finance minister, Daniel Mookhey, told the Guardian that “on the face of it there is clear evidence that the minister was told the land was contaminated”. “Equally, there’s no evidence of what he did in response,” he said.
The NSW government has referred the matter to the NSW auditor general for independent review. Constance said he expected openness and transparency from his department.
“I expect full openness, transparency and accountability from Transport for NSW,” he said. “To give the community confidence and full transparency I have written to the NSW auditor general seeking her engagement to independently review this matter.”
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on behalf of the developer.
The premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has acknowledged the matter should be referred to Icac but is yet to make the referral herself. Labor says it will instead attempt to have parliament force the issue. The motion to refer is expected to be voted on in the upper house on Wednesday and the lower house on Thursday.
“At face value, there are sufficient questions there that needed to be answered,” Berejiklian said.
The purchase follows another land purchase scandal in western Sydney involving the federal government, which bought a block of land from the Leppington Pastoral Company at 10 times its value. That purchase triggered a damning audit and, later, a federal police investigation.
