Senate Rural and Regional Affairs and Transport Legislation Committee, , 2:09:34 to 2:13:26
The committee examines the thresholds for the Commonwealth to withhold or suspend infrastructure funding following integrity referrals in South Australia and New South Wales.
Topics: Integrity, Infrastructure, Government spending
Speakers: Hon Bridget McKenzie, Mr. Jim Betts, Jessica Hall, Unknown Speaker
>> Is this is in regards to the project um Torren to Darlington? >> Yeah. Um so in regards to this project Senator this is a um the a civil issue in regards to share management that is not necessarily there's further investigations in regards to the um relationship with that project at this
>> I don't understand what you just said.
>> You thinking of the project New South Wales? >> Sorry. Were you thinking of the project referred to in New South Wales which um
>> this is sorry I'm just >> oh the not disclosed was that New South Wales sorry I was writing madly and that's been um sent to their Yes. Sorry that's been sent to the New South Wales integrity body. Is that correct?
>> Uh yes. Although we're very constrained in what we can say about being with
>> it. Um, so that that's been referred to an integrity body. Has has Minister King being briefed on options available to her on suspending, withholding or conditioning any payments, future payments around
>> Around the New South Wales project? >> Uh, no, not at this stage, Senator. Has
she requested any advice about what she should do given this project's been >> referred to an integrity body?
But we've explained that um the way in which the federal funding agreement and related processes work in that the obligation of the relevant jurisdiction is to refer an allegation to an integrity body whether that's the Fairwork OMBbudsman or the police or another integrity body and that has occurred in New South Wales and therefore there is no basis on which we would withhold payments until such time as an investigation have been concluded.
What internal work has the department done on the stop point? What needs to actually occur in terms of a level of corruption or criminal behavior for you for the department to advise the ad minister that she should consider suspending payments? What what do we have to see debt? You know, what level of criminal behavior >> is enough for there to be advice around suspending or pausing payments from the
Commonwealth? Uh well, in the case that Ms. Hall cited, it [clears throat] involved an allegation having been made without the relevant jurisdiction confirming to our satisfaction that it had been referred to a relevant uh integrity body that resulted in um a withholding of payment for a period of time until that confirmation came through. So that's the first threshold.
>> But honestly, what actually has to happen before the Commonwealth, the minister says, "You know what? Enough. We're not throwing any more Commonwealth taxpayer money at this project until we can be satisfied the corruption has ended. If a jurisdiction
refused to refer an allegation to an integrity body, then um one of the options available to us as demonstrated by the Northeast Law Police would be to
But once sorry
>> if you're asking us to speculate about what action we might take in the light of an investigation having been concluded and confirming that corruption had taken place we would need to judge that on its merits and probably take into account advice from the integrity [cough] but we would have options including under our legislation