Federal Minister Angus Taylor says his travel figures were false but council was the source
Federal Energy Minister Angus Taylor has moved to apologise to Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore for his use of figures contained in a bogus document after the case was referred to NSW Police.
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FEDERAL Energy Minister Angus Taylor has moved to apologise to Sydney lord mayor Clover Moore for his use of figures contained in a bogus document after the case was referred to NSW Police.
After defending his use of an altered document to launch an attack on Ms Moore over travel spending, Mr Taylor conceded last night the $15.9 million bill he cited in a letter to her last month was wrong.
He was also unable to prove the document he claimed was an extract of the council’s annual report was ever online, instead releasing examples of other pages which contained slight alterations.
Mr Taylor claimed the differences showed he was providing “clear evidence” that there were different versions of the same report currently online — but not the version with the incorrect figures he used.
He also said his office had accessed the annual report on September 9, three days after his office previously told The Daily Telegraph they had found the report. Mr Taylor’s office had sent The Daily Telegraph the altered document when Council disputed the figures in the Minister’s letter.
“What is clear now, is that the numbers in that document were not correct,” Mr Taylor said. “I reject absolutely the suggestion that I, or any members of my staff, altered the document in question; however, I will be writing to the Lord Mayor to offer my apologies for not clarifying those numbers with the City of Sydney before writing to her.”
Mr Taylor’s statement shared a side-by-side comparison of five pairs of pages he said illustrated differences in formatting between versions of the current annual report in Word and PDF forms of it.
Mr Taylor’s statement claimed it demonstrated “these inaccuracies are not caused by the PDF-making process.”
A spokesman for Ms Moore said different versions of the report were provided online for accessibility reasons. They said the content provided was identical.
“This material provided by the Minister does not explain where the document with the incorrect figures originated. At no time have the false figures appeared in the City of Sydney’s publicly available annual reports,” the spokesman said.
Shadow Attorney-General Mark Dreyfus wrote to NSW Police Commissioner Mick Fuller yesterday seeking the formal investigation.
Mr Dreyfus cited three sections of the NSW Crimes Act, asking the police to consider whether the conduct committed an offence.