Australian federal police have launched an investigation into the Leppington Triangle purchase scandal, in which taxpayers paid more than 10 times the valued price for a plot of land not needed for 30 years.
The auditor general released a scathing report into the sale of the land near the site of the new Western Sydney airport, for which Liberal party donors received $26.7m above the land’s fair value. The auditor general found unnamed departmental officials had acted unethically for failing to advise decision makers of key details about the planned purchase and for giving inaccurate answers to the auditor general about the way the land was valued.
Now the AFP has confirmed it will examine the potential for criminality in regards to the land purchase.
A spokesman said the investigation sought to “identify potential criminal offences relating to issues identified in an ANAO report into the sale of land to the Commonwealth at Badgerys Creek”.
“This investigation remains ongoing, and it is too early to speculate on potential outcomes, so no further comment will be provided,” he said.
The sale has spun into a controversy for the government.
Paul Fletcher, who was cities and urban infrastructure minister at the time the purchase was being prepared, has pointed the finger at bureaucrats in his former department.
“The auditor general makes it plain that in his assessment – and I wouldn’t disagree with that assessment – information that should have been provided to the decision maker was not provided,” Fletcher said last month.
He noted the report’s use of the language “unethical” in terms of the land sale but said he was unaware of many details surrounding the purchase.
Fletcher said briefing material provide to him and the deputy secretary was “deficient” because it failed to disclose “key pieces of information” that would have allowed them to assess whether what was paid was reasonable. He blamed “junior or mid-level officials” for the “highly inadequate brief”.
He has rebuffed questions asking if he should take responsibility as the minister then in charge of the department.
The department has previously defended the “unorthodox” valuation, arguing it paid a premium to avoid costly legal disputes because the Leppington Pastoral Company had fought a compulsory acquisition valuation in the 1990s.
The company – operated by the billionaire brothers Tony and Ron Perich – has donated a total of $176,600 to the Liberal party since 2002, including $58,800 in 2018-19.
The deputy prime minister, Michael McCormack, called the purchase “a bargain” and said it would “eventually will be hailed as a good decision”.
“I appreciate that yes, it was very much over the odds, I appreciate there’s a review going on into how that actually happened,” he said late last month. “But eventually when there is a need [for] more runways and more infrastructure to be built at Western Sydney airport, they’ll look back and say, probably, ‘What a bargain that was.’”
His comments were quickly shot down by Scott Morrison, who said the failings identified by the auditor general would not be repeated.
“I understand why Australians would feel very disappointed in that,” the prime minster said last month. “I’m also disappointed in it. I don’t think it’s something that I would ever like to see repeated.”
Labor had vowed to further pursue the matter through a parliamentary inquiry.
The party’s transport and infrastructure spokeswoman, Catherine King, welcomed the AFP investigation, and said Labor would pursue it in Senate estimates next week.
“This is a piece of land, the acquisition of which the deputy prime minister told us was a bargain and it was a good decision and the prime minister dismissed as being just an issue of poor process,” King said.
“There is something very fishy about what has gone on here. Labor welcomes that the Australian federal police is investigating. And we will have questions for the department and ministers at Senate Estimates on Monday but it’s absolutely vital, if we’re to have any confidence at all in the Morrison government’s billions of dollars that is going into Western Sydney airport, billions into infrastructure programs, we need to get to the bottom of what has happened.”