It’s been revealed a letter Energy Minister Angus Taylor sent to Sydney’s Lord Mayor Clover Moore attacking her council over travel expenses was "very different" to a draft version provided by his department.
A Senate Estimates spillover hearing on Tuesday heard the draft given to his office did not include highly inflated travel figures cited in the final letter.
The Liberal MP sent an “unreserved” apology to Ms Moore last month for falsely claiming the council spent $15 million on travel.
The letter's additional statement was added to the Department's original draft:
Energy Minister Angus Taylor. Source: AAP
“Given your most recent annual report shows your council spent $1.7 million on international travel and $14.2 million on domestic travel, there is a real opportunity to make a meaningful contribution to reducing Australia’s emissions,” his letter said.
The letter was in response to one from Ms Moore warning the Federal government of the need to respond to the “climate emergency”.
It had relied on false figures allegedly obtained from a copy of the council’s 2017/18 annual report, which his office also passed onto The Daily Telegraph.
Ms Moore has claimed the numbers came from a “fraudulent” document after The Guardian revealed the figures were incorrect.
Labor’s Environment spokesperson Mark Butler said Mr Taylor has more questions to answer over the origins of the figures.
“Angus Taylor needs to come clean about exactly how these doctored figures turned up in a letter signed by him – because we have yet to see a public document that confirms his version of events,” Mr Butler said.
“That draft letter is very different to the final letter sent by Minister Taylor to the Lord Mayor."
Department officials confirmed after the draft was issued Mr Taylor did not request to verify further information in the final letter.
Energy Minister Angus Taylor. Source: AAP
Senator Kristina Keneally put pressure on Senator Simon Birmingham, who was representing Mr Taylor, over the matter in Senate Estimates.
She said Trove – a website run by the National Library of Australia – had archived both the PDF and word versions of City of Sydney's annual report.
"Is it the minister's contention that the correct report was on the website on April 20 and replaced with a report with incorrect figures that his office downloaded on the September 9 and then the report with the correct figures was put back up again?”
“Is that the contention of the minister?" Ms Keneally asked.
Senator Birmingham repeatedly read out Mr Taylor’s statement to Parliament, claiming there were multiple copies of the report, in response to questions.
Mr Taylor has said there was “clear evidence” on the council’s website: “that there are different versions of the same report online right now.”
In his apology to Ms Moore he regretted not clarifying the figures.
“It is now clear to me that the correspondence I sent you on 29 September 2019 included numbers that were not correct,” Mr Taylor said.
“Given this, I regret not clarifying those figures with you before writing, and relying on those figures in media commentary. I apologise unreservedly.”
Mr Taylor is expected to face further scrutiny when Parliament resumes on 25 November.
