Angus Taylor makes false accusations about Sydney mayor’s travel expenses

by Elizabeth Minter | Jun 20, 2020 | Deceptive Conduct, Liberal Party, QED

Deceptive Conduct | Liberal Party | QED

AAP Image/Lukas Coch

Angus Taylor makes false accusations about Sydney mayor’s travel expenses

October 2019

The Office of Energy Minister, Angus Taylor, has been accused of forging a Sydney City Council document that Taylor used to call Sydney Mayor Clover Moore a hypocrite over her climate change stance.

Angus Taylor used the doctored document to claim the council spent $15 million in the 2017/2018 financial year on international and domestic flights, suggesting the council was a significant greenhouse gas emitter. Sydney Council provided evidence showing the true figure was in fact only about $6000.

Taylor’s office has not released the full version of the document it claims it downloaded from the council’s website.

The Australian Federal Police declined to investigate the origin of the doctored document. It justified its decision by saying that only “a low level of harm” had been caused and that getting to the bottom of the matter would require a “significant” level of resources. The AFP also admitted its officers did not interview either Angus Taylor or Clover Moore. Labor MPs Mark Dreyfus and 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”.

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What's a rort?

Conflicts of Interest

Redirecting funding to pet hobbies; offering jobs to the boys without a proper tender process; secretly bankrolling candidates in elections; taking up private sector jobs in apparent breach of parliament’s code of ethics, the list goes on.

Deceptive Conduct

Claiming that greenhouse gas emissions have gone down when the facts clearly show otherwise; breaking the law on responding to FoI requests; reneging on promised legislation; claiming credit for legislation that doesn’t exist; accepting donations that breach rules. You get the drift of what behaviour this category captures.

Election Rorts

In the months before the last election, the Government spent hundreds of millions of dollars of Australian taxpayers’ money on grants for sports, community safety, rural development programs and more. Many of these grants were disproportionally awarded to marginal seats, with limited oversight and even less accountability.

Dubious Travel Claims

Ministerial business that just happens to coincide with a grand final or a concert; electorate business that must be conducted in prime tourist locations, or at the same time as party fundraisers. All above board, maybe, but does it really pass the pub test? Or does it just reinforce the fact that politicians take the public for mugs?

Angus Taylor makes false accusations about Sydney mayor’s travel expenses

Angus Taylor makes false accusations about Sydney mayor’s travel expenses

What's a rort?

Conflicts of Interest

Deceptive Conduct

Election Rorts

Dubious Travel Claims

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Thank you!

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