AFP investigates $30m Western Sydney airport land deal

Commonwealth land purchased for a potential Western Sydney Airport runway, sold at 10 times its worth, is now under criminal investigation.

Communications Minister Paul Fletcher who was responsible for the Western Sydney Airport when the federal government bought the land from billionaire businessmen and Liberal Party donors Tony and Ron Perich. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Gary Ramage

A highly inflated Commonwealth purchase of land for a potential Western Sydney Airport runway is now under criminal investigation, a month after the Auditor General found it was bought for nearly 10 times its worth.

Known as the Leppington Triangle, the 12.26ha of land was owned by billionaire businessmen and Liberal Party donors Tony and Ron Perich through their Leppington Pastoral Company and bought by the Department of Infrastructure in July 2018 for $29.8m.

Secured for the use of a possible second runway at the Western Sydney Airport, the land was valued at just $3.1m 11 months later.

An Australian Federal Police spokeswoman confirmed on Friday the federal police will now investigate the sale.

“The AFP can confirm it is conducting an investigation to identify potential criminal offences relating to issues identified in an ANAO report into the sale of land at Badgerys Creek,” she said.

“This investigation remains ongoing, and it is too early to speculate on potential outcomes, so no further comment will be provided.”

In September, Auditor-General Grant Hehir said the Department of Infrastructure’s operations during and after the acquisition “fell short of ethical standards” and an “appropriate” acquisition strategy was not developed. 

Auditor-General Grant Hehir says the acquisition ‘fell short of ethical standards’.

Instead, the government was focused on “incentivising an unwilling seller to dispose of their land some 32 years in advance of when it was anticipated to be needed for the airport expansion, an approach at odds with the department asserting that early purchase allowed it to capitalise on ‘goodwill’ from the landowner”.

Deputy Prime Minister Michael McCormack - who leads the Department of Infrastructure - was approached for comment.

The Leppington Pastoral Company declined to comment.

Paul Fletcher, the minister responsible for the Western Sydney Airport when the federal government bought the land, blamed a deputy secretary for signing off on the deal last month.

Mr Fletcher also refused to say if he would have blocked the acquisition if he had been fully briefed on the Department of Infrastructure’s “unethical” and “inadequate” valuation process.