Australian federal police given referral to investigate whether a crime was committed when energy minister’s office used false figures to attack Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore

This article is more than 8 months old

This article is more than 8 months old

The New South Wales police investigation into energy minister Angus Taylor over the use of doctored documents to attack Sydney’s lord mayor has been referred to the Australian federal police.

The minister greeted the news by claiming NSW police had confirmed to his solicitors they had “concluded their investigation”.

“The minister welcomes that fact,” his spokeswoman said. “This supports his repeated previous statements that neither he, nor any member of his office, altered the document in question.

“Of course minister Taylor will cooperate with the AFP and any enquiries they wish to make, although he fully expects they will conclude that this matter is baseless.”

The matter was referred to the federal police on December 20, but has only just been made public.

A statement from the NSW police confirmed the matter had been handed over in a two line press release.

“Following an investigation by the State Crime Command’s Financial Crimes Squad, the matter has been referred to the Australian Federal Police.



“No further comment is available.”

Sky News reported the NSW police have handed over the investigation because of jurisdictional issues, arguing any crime, if there was one, occurred in Canberra, not Sydney.

Timeline The dispute over City of Sydney's travel spending Show Hide Sydney’s lord mayor, Clover Moore, declares a climate emergency, which is endorsed by the council. 29 September: The energy and emissions reduction minister, Angus Taylor, writes to Clover Moore, claiming the council’s annual report “shows your council spent $1.7m on international travel and $14.2m on domestic travel” in 2017-18. The Daily Telegraph publishes a story on page three and online accusing Moore of hypocrisy over the council’s emissions. The story quotes a letter from Taylor which says the council spent more than $15m on domestic and international travel.

Moore disputes the Telegraph story and asks the reporter to provide evidence of this claim. The reporter provides a page from the council’s annual report. The page contains two figures purporting to show the council spent “$14.2” in expenses on interstate travel and “$1.7” on overseas visits. Moore checks the annual report: on page 14 it shows councillors spent $4,206.32 on interstate travel and $1,727.77 on overseas visits. Moore angrily disputes the story with Taylor via Twitter. Moore writes to Taylor asking him to “ correct a stark error in your letter” saying the $15m figure was grossly inaccurate. Moore lodges complaint with the Press Council.

The AFP confirmed the investigation had been referred.

“The AFP can confirm it received a referral from New South Wales Police on December 20, 2019, in relation to the alleged doctoring of a document,” it said in a statement.

“While this matter is being evaluated, it would be inappropriate to comment any further.”

The Labor leader, Anthony Albanese, said the opposition would continue to pursue the matter when parliament resumed in February.

“One of the reports indicates that the AFP have been investigating for some time that it hasn’t been announced today,” he told the ABC.

“We need to know exactly what the circumstances are. And we’ll continue to scrutinise that. And scrutinise as well the level of cooperation that is there with any inquiry to make sure that happens. This is pretty clear. There’s a document, it came from somewhere. The evidence will be there, in terms of computer trails of where it came from.”

The NSW police launched an investigation into the origins of an altered document which was used to politically attack the Sydney lord mayor, Clover Moore, after Labor contacted the police to ask if an investigation was warranted.

A strike force investigation into the issue was launched, leading Scott Morrison to personally contact NSW police commissioner Mick Fuller, by phone, leading to allegations, which were strongly denied, he had influenced the investigation.

At the time, Fuller said he believed the matter would be wrapped up in a week.

“To be honest with you, I actually don’t feel as though the allegations themselves are serious, in terms of the things that I would normally stand up and talk about the types of crimes,” he said.

“But at the end of the day they’re public figures, and at the end of the day I’m assuming that the public and the media would expect that we take all matters seriously against public figures.”