The Shadow Minister for Energy Dr Steve Thomas says the State Government was this week shamed into the release of information he asked for last year thanks to a scathing report by the Auditor General into the lack of accountability and media coverage of the issue this week.
Dr Thomas said that the “gold standard transparency” WA was promised by the incoming Labor Government in 2017 is now a joke.
“In October and November 2023 and I asked questions about payments to a legal firm for advice on Griffin Coal which the Government was too embarrassed to answer” Dr Thomas said.
“The Auditor General looked at that refusal to answer and released a report that was tabled in Parliament this week, which identified that the Government had also refused to provide this much needed information to the Office of the Auditor General itself.
The Auditor General’s report highlighted that:
- In two cases she had to issue a “disclaimer of opinion” on the Government’s answers to my question in Parliament because her staff were refused access to the information they needed to determine whether the answers were reasonable.
- In the other case she determined that the Government’s action to refuse to answer the question on the total cost of the legal fees “was not reasonable and therefore not appropriate”.
The report also said “commercial confidentiality is not a reason to prevent me and my staff from accessing information. Access by my auditors does not equal public disclosure” and “not providing a detailed explanation of why the material is commercially sensitive makes it very difficult for me to assess whether the Attorney General in this instance made a decision based on valid concerns”.
“This week I again asked the question of how much the Government had paid a legal firm, and finally shamed by the public exposure of their secrecy they were forced to reveal the answer” Dr Thomas said.
“It should not have taken a year to learn that it cost WA taxpayers over half a million dollars for advice from 19 solicitors and 3 articled clerks on the Government’s disastrous management of the Collie coalfields.
“In a disgraceful lack of accountability and transparency the Government tried to hide this cost from the Parliament, the public and even the Auditor General herself.
“Let’s just hope the advice was worth it” Dr Thomas said.
