NSW government in disarray weeks from election as scandals snare MPs

The NSW government is in disarray just five weeks from the state election as one of Premier Dominic Perrottet’s most senior ministers and closest confidants was forced to quit cabinet after it emerged he owned shares in the tolling company that controls most of Sydney’s motorways.

The premier was also forced to reveal on Friday that one of his parliamentary secretaries had stood down amid a scandal involving intimate photos he shared.

Dominic Perrottet at Leppington onThursday. The premier’s government is under pressure after twin scandals.Credit: Rhett Wyman

Finance minister and leader of the government in the Legislative Council Damien Tudehope quit just hours after he confirmed he held shares in Transurban, which owns the majority of tolling concessions across Sydney, including WestConnex, NorthConnex and the M2.

Perrottet sought legal advice on Friday afternoon over whether Tudehope “knowingly breached” any disclosure rules under the ministerial code of conduct.

In a statement late on Friday, Perrottet confirmed the advice from the Department of Premier and Cabinet had “cleared Damien” however Tudehope had decided to resign from cabinet.

“I have known Damien for many years and he is a person of integrity and honesty. At all times he has undertaken his responsibilities as a minister with the highest of standards,” Perrottet said.

Tudehope also released a statement, noting that the legal advice found he did not “knowingly breach the ministerial code of conduct”.

“However, during the course of the day I have had the opportunity to consider my position and I value my own integrity and the integrity of the government to be something that is not the subject of repeated political attacks,” Tudehope said in a statement.

Line of fire: Damien Tudehope and Peter Poulos.Credit: Oscar Colman/supplied

Upper House MLC Peter Poulos resigned on Friday from his secretary role amid internal anger after an admission he shared explicit images of Hawkesbury MP Robyn Preston in the lead-up to a bitter preselection battle. Poulos has apologised to Preston, who modelled as a Penthouse “pet” in the 1980s.

In a major embarrassment for Perrottet, Tudehope on Friday confirmed he held shares in tolling giant Transurban, which owns the majority of tolling concessions across Sydney, including the WestConnex motorway, NorthConnex and the M2.

Tudehope said he had unknowingly held the shares in a family superannuation fund, but insisted he gave a “printout of the assets” contained within that fund to both Perrottet and former premier Gladys Berejiklian.

He said the Transurban shares were sold overnight, and conceded they had risen in value considerably since he was appointed minister in 2019. Tudehope said he would donate to charity any profit he made, which he expected to be about $6000.

Tudehope said he did not recuse himself from cabinet over discussions involving Transurban because he did not know he owned the shares as the superannuation fund was managed by a fund manager.

“If I had known I held Transurban shares, which I did not, I would have, in fact, disclosed that holding at the time,” he said.

He wrote to Perrottet seeking clarification over whether he breached the ministerial code of conduct.

The premier has had a difficult start to the year, after being forced to apologise for wearing a Nazi uniform to his 21st birthday party, as well as a scathing report from the auditor-general into bushfire grants, which found that Coalition seats were prioritised for funding over Labor electorates.

NSW Liberals are also embroiled in a branch-stacking scandal, which involves two of Perrottet’s brothers who have refused to give evidence to a parliamentary inquiry into the claims. The branch stacking allegations were raised in parliament by Liberal MP Ray Williams.

Tudehope said he had not been a party to any discussions relating to the multibillion-dollar WestConnex motorway, which the government sold in two tranches to a consortium led by Transurban.

“I was never ever involved in any discussions relating to WestConnex … either I was not in the relevant committee or relevant cabinet meeting, I was not present in relation to any of those discussions,” he said.

Tudehope said he was in cabinet when there were policy discussions about providing toll relief to motorists, but would not have taken part had he known he owned the shares.

Transurban purchased the majority share of WestConnex from the state government in 2018 for just over $9.2 billion.Credit: Brook Mitchell

The consortium purchased the majority share of WestConnex from the state government in 2018 for just over $9.2 billion, before buying the remaining share for $11.1 billion in 2021.

Tudehope’s disclosures suggest he also owns shares in energy company AGL via the same superannuation fund. When asked about those shares, Tudehope said: “As I stand here now, I don’t know whether I hold shares in AGL.”

Leader of the opposition in the upper house Penny Sharpe said Tudehope’s failure to disclose his shares in Transurban represented a “significant” breach of the ministerial code of conduct.

“It beggars belief that a minister with such important responsibilities was unaware, or made no inquiries into the shares that he owned, and therefore let potential conflict of interests in government decision-making arise,” Sharpe said.

The Greens transport and treasury spokesperson Abigail Boyd said Tudehope had been “one of the most vocal defenders of the exorbitant tolling system concocted by the NSW Liberals and Transurban”.

“In the interests of transparency and accountability, and given how many decisions of this Liberal-National government have been beneficial for Transurban, the Greens call on all government MPs to immediately disclose their financial interests in Transurban,” Boyd said.

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