AWH chief Nick Di Girolamo boasted of big Queensland deal to investors

THE former AWH boss boasted of talks with the Queensland government about a $100 million infrastructure project.

THE former boss of the water company at the centre of a NSW corruption inquiry boasted of talks with the Queensland government about a $100 million infrastructure project in a bid to raise funds with investors.

As the Newman government failed to answer questions yesterday about its dealings with Australian Water Holdings, it emerged the company’s former chief executive, Nick Di Girolamo, told investors in 2012 he was in discussions with the state over the massive Ripley Valley development, west of Brisbane.

Mr Di Girolamo made the comments two months after a meeting with Queensland’s top public servant Jon Grayson, who had a stake in a joint venture in Queensland with AWH until late last year.

Last month, a spokesman issued a statement on behalf of Mr Grayson, saying the March 30, 2012, meeting in Brisbane with Mr Di Girolamo was “private’’ and had only discussed the director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet “removing himself from any active involvement’’ in the joint venture.

In the statement, the spokesman said it was the only contact Mr Grayson had with Mr Di Girolamo and that the bureaucrat was unaware of any other meeting with AWH representatives since he joined the Newman government.

It has since emerged that AWH’s Queensland boss Wayne Myers may have organised and attended a meeting with Mr Grayson in June 2012, when the Ripley Valley development was discussed.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is examining whether former NSW Labor MPs Eddie Obeid, Joe Tripodi and Tony Kelly misused their positions to favour AWH, in which the Obeid family held a secret $3m, 30 per cent stake.

Documents tendered to ICAC show that in 2012 Mr Di Girolamo was claiming to be talking to the government about AWH’s expansion plans into Queensland.

“We are discussing the private funding of $100m of infrastructure with the Queensland government to accelerate land development at Ripley Valley,’’ he wrote in a series of letters to potential investors in May 2012.

A spokesman for Campbell Newman said yesterday he could not respond to questions about Mr Grayson’s dealing with AWH or its subsidiaries or his business interests. “Neither the Premier nor Mr Grayson are available today, so I can’t help you with these,’’ he said.

Earlier this week, the spokesman said Mr Grayson was unsure if Mr Myers had attended a June 2012 meeting and that there was no record of his attendance.

But former Ipswich City Council chief executive Carl Wulff told The Australian Mr Myers had organised the meeting with Mr Grayson and had attended, even making the introductions.

Queensland’s solicitor-general Greg Cooper yesterday wrote to The Australian, on instructions from Mr Grayson.

“Mr Grayson rejects any suggestion that he has conflict of interest or that his shareholdings in those companies have influenced any decisions made in the discharge of his duties ...’’ Mr Cooper wrote. “Any suggestion or inference that there has been wrongdoing on Mr Grayson’s part is also rejected.’’