Taylor and Josh Frydenberg face possible inquiry over meeting with officials on protected grasslands

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

The energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, has again defended himself over his business interests in a company that was under investigation for alleged illegal clearing of native grasslands, declaring he always acted within parliamentary rules.

The government faced a second day of interrogation in both houses of parliament over Taylor’s shareholdings in Jam Land Pty Ltd, which he holds via his family investment company Gufee.

Taylor has been repeatedly asked whether he had declared any relevant conflicts when he met with department officials and Josh Frydenberg’s office in 2017 about the grasslands at the centre of the departmental investigation.

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Taylor and Frydenberg are now facing a possible parliamentary inquiry into their conduct. Labor’s leader in the Senate, Penny Wong, will move on Thursday for the matter to be referred to an inquiry by the Senate’s environment and communications references committee.

Guardian Australia revealed in June that Taylor met with Frydenberg’s office and department officials to discuss the federal government’s designation of the critically endangered grasslands known as the natural temperate grassland of the south-eastern highlands.

The meetings occurred at the same time that New South Wales and federal investigations were under way into the poisoning of about 30 hectares that contained the grasses on a property in the state’s Monaro region owned by Jam Land Pty Ltd.

After lobbying by Taylor, Frydenberg’s office canvassed whether protections for the grasslands could be watered down and if the change had to be published.

In the House of Representatives on Wednesday, Labor asked whether Taylor had properly disclosed to the parliament his financial interest in Jam Land.

They pointed to statements he made in Tuesday’s question time in which he said he had “no association” with Jam Land and had “remained at arm’s length from the company”.

The opposition’s leader of business, Tony Burke, added that Taylor’s most recent declaration of interests to the parliament did not list his shares in Jam Land.

Taylor’s declaration does not mention his shares in Jam Land, but it does list his shares in Gufee, which is one of the main shareholders in Jam Land.

Taylor told question time that this declaration was in accordance with parliamentary rules. “My indirect interest in Jam Land through my family company has been reported in the media and was declared in accordance with the rules, declared in accordance with the rules through my family company,” he said.

“As I have also said in the previous question, I have no association with the compliance action that has been the subject of these questions. I have never made a representation in relation to it.”

The government is under growing pressure about the meetings that took place between department officials, Taylor and Frydenberg’s office in March 2017.

The Greens sought an explanation from the government in the Senate this week and have said they will pursue an inquiry into Taylor and Frydenberg’s conduct.

Wong used question time in the upper house on Wednesday to ask whether Taylor’s business interests had been properly declared.

“Given that the ministerial declaration of interests and the register of interests in the house make no mention of Jam Land Pty Ltd could the minister please refer us to where the minister actually declared that interest?” she asked Simon Birmingham.

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The Labor senator Jenny McAllister said Birmingham and the government’s Senate leader, Mathias Cormann, had failed for two days to explain the circumstances around the meetings in 2017.

“It is striking how unwilling they have been to add even the tiniest bit of detail to this story and it’s a big tell,” she said in the Senate.

“I haven’t been in this parliament or this chamber for as long as some of these people but I have been around long enough to know that when you get answers like the ones that are being provided, there is a cover-up going on.

“People are scrambling. The senators who have been answering questions in this place have been desperate to keep their hands off this.”

McAllister pointed to documents obtained by Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws that show the meeting between Taylor and the department was sought just a day after environment officials met with Jam Land about the alleged illegal clearing.

“The whole affair stinks. It stinks of the kind of insider dealings that drives people nuts,” she said.