Centre Alliance helps block Taylor referral

Centre Alliance has helped stave off a move to refer Energy Minister Angus Taylor to a parliamentary inquiry.

Energy Minister Angus Taylor during question time in Canberra yesterday. Picture: AAP

Centre Alliance has helped stave off a move to refer Energy Minister Angus Taylor to a parliamentary inquiry, with Labor seeking to pursue the NSW MP over his indirect interest in a family company linked to an investigation into alleged illegal land clearing.

The opposition is trying to pressure Mr Taylor over March 2017 meetings he had with Environment Department officials and the office of then environment minister Josh Frydenberg to discuss the status of endangered grasslands that were the focus of a departmental investigation.

The meetings were held while investigations were under way into the alleged poisoning of 30ha that contained the grassland on a NSW property owned by Jam Land Pty Ltd.

Mr Taylor’s brother Richard is one of Jam Land’s directors, while their family investment company, Gufee, is a shareholder.

Mr Taylor told parliament yesterday that in the meeting he was seeking to ensure that farmers in his electorate were being fairly treated under a revised EPBC listing and that concerns had also been raised by the National Farmers Federation. “I can safely say that the work that I have done … with respect to the listing that has been referred to in this place in the last 24 hours was to protect interests of the farmers in my electorate,” Mr Taylor said.

Centre Alliance senator Rex Patrick yesterday said that his party — which controls two upper house seats — would not support the inquiry because he had seen evidence suggesting that Mr Taylor was raising concerns on behalf of his constituents.

“Centre Alliance has to be satisfied there is a prima facie case before it would support an inquiry into a minister,” Senator Patrick told The Australian. “At this point in time, we are not satisfied, but we are seeking a briefing from Labor senators. And if the threshold is met, we will change our position.”

Opposition Senate leader Penny Wong yesterday accused Mr Taylor in parliament of being corrupt, but later agreed to withdraw the claim after the government took issue with the word.

“They won’t allow me to say the word ‘corrupt’. But they know this is not kosher,” she said.

Mr Taylor has repeatedly stated that he made no represen­tations to federal or state officials about the illegal land-clearing investigation. He also told parliament he didn’t ask for or know that an investigator from the federal department’s compliance team attended the meeting.

Labor environment spokeswoman Terri Butler said yesterday the issue was “about basic disclosure and governance practices.”

“How can Australians trust anything Scott Morrison says if he can’t even make his own ministers comply with basic but critical democratic principles like preventing clear conflicts of interest?”

Additional Reporting: AAP