The numbers contradict Grayson’s AWH denials

A COMPANY co-owned by Campbell Newman’s top public servant and AWH was negotiating to build a treatment plant up until last year.

A JOINT venture company co-owned by Campbell Newman’s top public servant and Australian Water Holdings was negotiating with the Queensland government-owned CS Energy to build a new treatment plant up until last year.

Despite Jon Grayson last month saying he was unaware of any dealings between the government and Gasfields Water Management since becoming head of the public service in March 2012, it has emerged that he helped negotiations with the energy supplier that ended only in January last year.

Mr Grayson owned a quarter of GWM, with the remaining stake held by AWH — at the centre of a NSW corruption hearings that alleged it siphoned taxpayer money from Sydney Water to fund its expansion into Queensland.

GWM pulled out of the talks to use CS Energy land to build a coal-seam gas water treatment plant just a month after it became public that the Independent Commission Against Corruption was probing AWH and its secret links to disgraced former NSW Labor MP Eddie Obeid.

Mr Grayson, director-general of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, stepped down as a director of GWM after joining the government but last year was among six equal shareholders — along with Eddie Obeid Jr and former AWH boss Nick di Girolamo — who set up a new “gas fields’’ company in Queensland.

Earlier this month, Mr Grayson announced he was divesting his private business holdings after pressure from the state opposition and senior members of the Newman government.

CS Energy this week issued a statement confirming that it had been negotiating a deal with GWM — which was deregistered last year — between mid-2011 and 2013.

In a statement, Mr Grayson, through the Premier’s spokesman, said yesterday he stood by his March 27 statement to The Australian that he was “not aware’’ either of the Gasfields companies had any dealings or discussions with the Queensland government since joining the public service.