The sister-in-law of federal MP Angus Taylor has faced questions in the New South Wales parliament over whether she sought to influence the state government’s submissions on the upgrading of an endangered grass species that was prevalent on land part-owned by the federal minister.

Bronwyn Taylor, who is a NSW Nationals MP, was asked at question time about the issue that was at the centre of a state investigation and is currently being pursued by the federal environment department.

The issue of federal and state protection for Monaro grasslands is the focus of a Guardian Australia investigation.

On Wednesday, the Guardian revealed that Angus Taylor had sought briefings on the listing of grasslands in 2017, just a day after a company in which he has an interest met with federal compliance officers over potential illegal clearing charges.

The company in question, Jam Land, had bought land near Delegate in 2016 and sprayed 30 hectares around November of that year, killing a critically endangered species.

Angus Taylor has an interest in Jam Land as do Bronwyn Taylor and Duncan Taylor, Angus’s brother, via their company Fairross. Richard Taylor, another brother, is a director.

The Taylors have other substantial farming interests on the Monaro plains.

In NSW parliament on Thursday, the opposition environment spokeswoman, Penny Sharpe, asked Bronwyn Taylor whether she had involved herself in any representations about the NSW government submission about the commonwealth up-listing of Monaro grassland to “critically endangered” in 2016.

The question was ruled out of order because it related to Taylor’s personal actions and not her ministerial responsibilities, so she did not answer.

She was also asked about a federal department meeting with the NSW Local Land Services to discuss the listing immediately after Angus Taylor had contacted the federal minister, Josh Frydenberg, in March 2017.

Local Land Services are NSW bodies set up to facilitate communication with rural land holders and to “improve primary production within healthy landscapes”. Their aim is to promote sustainable farming practices.

The head of the Local Land Services in the south-east at the time of the alleged poisoning of the grasslands was David Mitchell, who was also a shareholder in Jam Land. Sharpe said there had been “community concern” about the meeting.

The NSW and federal environmental authorities both began investigations into Jam Land’s land-clearing in 2017 following complaints from a neighbour.

The NSW investigation was dropped by April despite the government’s expert finding that the poisoning site had likely contained slightly more than 50% native grasses, judging by the remaining grassland around it.

The NSW Native Vegetation Act protects native grassland if it is more than 50% native species. But it can be cleared without prior approval if it is less than that.

Documents obtained by Guardian Australia under state freedom-of-information laws show that Jam Land strongly disputed that the cleared land was more than 50% native and produced it own report from agronomist Stuart Burge.

He had made his assessment in October 2016 of a 40-hectare sample area and had concluded that the native ground cover pre-clearing was slightly less than the 50% threshold.

The NSW Office of Environment and Heritage then agreed to a further site inspection, by pre-eminent native grassland and remediation expert Kenneth Hodgkinson, of the CSIRO, who concluded that “it is possible there was about 50% or less native grassland cover prior to clearing”, a file note from the department says.

However, the federal investigation remained a source of great irritation to Richard Taylor who complained about it in the rural press.

Documents obtained under federal FOI laws from the federal bureaucracy reveal that Angus Taylor approached the then environment minister, Frydenberg, who facilitated meetings for him with senior departmental staff in March 2017 .

Taylor has said he did not raise the compliance action and the purpose of the meetings was to receive briefings on the grasslands listing.

Frydenberg’s minister’s office asked for the head of compliance to attend but the department said in a statement to the Guardian that she did not attend the meeting.



The documents reveal the department was aware that the Jam Land investigation involved the Taylor family and the matter was highly sensitive.

The FOI also revealed that Frydenberg’s office sought advice from the department about whether it could water down the listing and go against its own Threatened Species Scientific Committee advice. They wanted to know whether the decision would need to be published or whether it could be kept secret.