Alan Tudge denies knowledge of ‘marginal electorate list’ to target with car parks

The federal government has insisted former infrastructure minister Alan Tudge had full authority to approve up to $660 million in grants for commuter car parks as he declared he knew nothing about a list of 20 marginal electorates that helped decide where the money was spent.

Despite the Auditor-General revealing a “marginal electorate list” was maintained in the office of Alan Tudge, the now-Education Minister on Tuesday said he had no knowledge of the list that was also shared with the office of Prime Minister Scott Morrison.

Former infrastructure minister Alan Tudge has justified the Coalition’s $600 million commuter carpark program by saying people voted for the Coalition.Credit: Alex Ellinghausen

It was the first time Mr Tudge faced questions over the car park program since the Auditor-General’s highly critical report which found that 77 per cent of projects were in Coalition seats. Just two of the promised 47 car parks have been completed, some have been abandoned and, in at least one case, the Auditor-General found the price of a single car space will be more than $211,000.

Many were promised in south-eastern Melbourne where senior ministers including Treasurer Josh Frydenberg and Assistant Treasurer Michael Sukkar faced serious challenges at the 2019 poll.

Mr Tudge, pressed on the existence of a marginal electorate list used to guide the selection of the car parks, denied knowledge of it.

“I’m not aware of that list,” he said.

His denial followed evidence by the Auditor-General’s office to a parliamentary committee last month that revealed the existence of the list.

Deputy Auditor-General Brian Boyd told the committee a “marginal electorate list” was maintained by Mr Tudge’s office and it was the starting point for Commuter Car Park fund decisions.

“It started being initially termed as being the top-20 marginals,” he said.

Mr Boyd said the office of the Prime Minister was also involved in the “canvassing” of potential projects.

The contact person in the Prime Minister’s office was the same involved in the contentious sports grants program.

In Parliament, Labor pressed Mr Morrison on who compiled the “top-20 marginals” seat but the Prime Minister handballed the question to Urban Infrastructure Minister Paul Fletcher.

He did not address the issue, instead saying Mr Tudge was legally entitled to allocate money.

“I will tell you who made the decision, the minister of the day made the decision. And the minister of the day had authority,” he said.

Labor’s urban infrastructure spokesman Andrew Giles said the entire situation was a farce and the Prime Minister needed to be upfront about the program.

“If [Mr Tudge] didn’t know about this list, there is only one person who could have known, Mr Morrison, the Prime Minister,” he said.

Labor won a vote in the Senate ordering the government to produce the top-20 marginals list, a map of Australia setting out which electorates would have projects within the Urban Congestion Fund, and spreadsheets shared between Mr Tudge’s staff, the Prime Minister’s office and the department.

The government is supposed to hand over the documents by Monday morning. However, historically the minister usually tables a short statement explaining why they can’t do that instead.

The vote narrowly passed 14-13, with a reduced number of senators in Canberra due to the coronavirus lockdowns. “I don’t know how we won that,” Labor’s finance spokeswoman Katy Gallagher said afterwards.

Senator Gallagher also introduced a bill to the Senate that would require faster public reporting of when ministers approve grants in their own electorate or make decisions that go against departmental recommendations.

Former Victorian Supreme Court judge David Harper, QC, said last month the scheme was “on any appropriate definition” an example of corruption.

Mr Tudge said the car parks were chosen on the basis of need. Two of the projects, Ferntree Gully and Boronia, were in Mr Tudge’s electorate of Aston.

He said the Auditor-General had found the decisions on the car parks were legal.

“The Auditor-General also said they were all lawfully based, 33 of them were ticked off by the department for coming up for decision. We took those to the Australian people and the Australian people voted for them,” he said.

Mr Tudge said the Coalition had sunk $9.1 billion into three “mega” projects across western and north-western Melbourne which were Labor-held seats. He nominated the planned Geelong fast rail project – which the Coalition promised at the 2019 election as part of its efforts to retain the marginal Liberal-held seat of Corangamite – as an example.

Mr Tudge, who said Labor’s own car park fund had promised projects to either Labor-held seats or those it was targeting at the last election, said the program was all about boosting demand for suburban rail.

“Our aim was to boost capacity right across particular lines,” he said.

“If you can boost capacity in one location it supports capacity further down the track. I had representations as much as anyone did across Melbourne, that people go to commuter car parks in the morning, find that the first one is full so what do they do, the drive to the next one. The next one’s full so they drive to the next one. The next one’s full and it keeps on going.”

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