Malcolm Turnbull could be compelled to appear at a Senate inquiry examining the government’s $443.8m grant to the Great Barrier Reef Foundation under a Labor and Greens push.
Although MPs cannot be compelled to answer questions in Senate committees, Turnbull’s decision to resign as member for Wentworth on Friday means he could be forced to front the inquiry examining the grant.
The committee chairman, Greens senator Peter Whish-Wilson, and Labor senator Kristina Keneally both told Guardian Australia they hoped that Turnbull would agree to attend a hearing voluntarily, but are prepared to compel him if necessary.
The controversial grant was first proposed at a 9 April meeting between Turnbull, then environment minister Josh Frydenberg and the foundation’s chairman, John Schubert, at which no environment department officials were present.
Documents obtained under freedom of information show no mention by the environment department of the record grant until 12 April, which Labor has argued shows it is “clearly wrong” that due diligence was conducted before the grant was proposed.
Whish-Wilson said the main line of inquiry is to establish whose idea the grant was. Frydenberg has defended the grant as “not unusual” despite the lack of a competitive tender and declined to say if the grant was his idea.
Whish-Wilson said Turnbull could “put to bed” why the grant was made, arguing that the reason the Coalition has given (the grant was made to a private fund to encourage co-investment by the private sector) “doesn’t stack up”.
Keneally said Labor senators want to know how Turnbull “felt he was able to make” the offer of the $444m grant and “what transpired behind closed doors” on 9 April.
“The argument that the foundation can use [the grant] to leverage additional philanthropic donations has never been adequately explained by Malcolm Turnbull or Josh Frydenberg,” she said.
The committee has already written to Turnbull asking that by 6 September he provide correspondence about the grant, notes from meetings discussing it, and any briefs from the environment department provided before the 9 April meeting.
In 1994 the former prime minister Bob Hawke was summonsed to appear before a Senate committee to answer questions about Conrad Black’s attempt to secure control of Fairfax newspapers – a precedent for Labor and the Greens’ current course of action. Both opposition parties defended calling Turnbull to the inquiry.
“Given the importance of this funding allocation and the shady way it’s happened I can’t think of a more important issue [to call a former MP and prime minister],” Whish-Wilson said.
Keneally said the committee was “simply asking him to answer some questions” about the decision taken when he was prime minister to make the “single biggest donation by the commonwealth to the Great Barrier Reef” in its history.
According to the Australian newspaper, Schubert and board members Stephen Fitzgerald and Grant King have agreed to front the inquiry in Canberra on 18 September, while a fourth board member, Paul Greenfield, will appear via teleconference.
A spokeswoman for the foundation said it “welcomes the opportunity to again engage with the Senate committee”.
