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”.
