Revelations about the Tradies Club's Dickson land swap deal with the territory government are 'prime candidates' for referral to the ACT's proposed anti-corruption commission, the ACT Greens leader says.
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An audit into the tender processes surrounding the controversial deal was tabled in the Legislative Assembly on Thursday, revealing the club was given "significant concessions" by the government worth up to $2.6 million.
The Assembly's public accounts committee also held what some described as an 'emergency meeting' on Thursday night to discuss establishing an inquiry into the issues raised, which is expected to be announced next week.
The audit detailed a series of weaknesses and failures in the tender process to sell a block of land to the club as part of the deal, failures in record-keeping and significant concessions given to the club that meant the government failed to complete an open, transparent and contestable sale.
It also comes as the Legislative Assembly awaits the government's response to a tripartite committee report urging an ACT anti-corruption commission be set up and operating by the end of this year.
Greens leader and former chairman of that committee Shane Rattenbury said on Friday that he believed that some of the matters exposed in the auditor's report "would be prime candidates for that sort of consideration".
While he said the minor party would consider taking such action, he expected he would be "beaten to the punch" by the Opposition, in officially referring the report to the proposed commission.
Opposition leader Alistair Coe also said he believed it could be worthy of such a referral, while the only Labor MLA to front any questions on the issue, planning minister Mick Gentleman, instead said it "puts the matter to bed".
The audit also highlighted a government solicitor's office warning to two senior public servants involved that going ahead with the concessions risked being "so divergent from the request for tender that it was a direct sale".
The government solicitor, the audit showed, told those public servants that going ahead created a risk the transaction may breach the ACT's planning laws requiring executive approval for such direct sales.
The audit also showed the CFMEU-linked Tradies had applied in January 2010 and August 2010 to buy the block housing the Dickson carpark at the centre of the deal, Block 30, Section 34, Dickson, both applications rejected by the department.
A third application in November 2010 gained the department's support, as the club offered to swap another block it owned [Block 25, Section 72 Dickson], which could have helped the government build more affordable housing.
But the then-Chief Minister Katy Gallagher's Cabinet, in October 2011, also rejected that in favour of the tender process roundly criticised in the audit.
Mr Rattenbury said that the audit had found serious failings in the LDA and changes in the past year including abolishing the agency had helped to address those failings, though it was an "ongoing cultural change".
He said the report, had not found "hard evidence" of political involvement, and absent such evidence, he was not prepared to support a no confidence motion against the government, should one arise.
But he said that the Greens, with the Liberals, had the numbers to ensure the proposed integrity commission would not be "half-baked", should Labor not back the committee's recommendations.
A key such recommendation, Mr Rattenbury said, was that it should be able to investigate some 'retrospective' issues, such as the Dickson land swap, if the commission saw the need.
"This report also highlights the fact that as we develop the integrity commission we need to think quite carefully on what are the pathways [for referral] from the Auditor-General to the commission," he said.
While planning minister Mick Gentleman has said the report found no evidence of wrong-doing by politicians or public servants, that is not the role of the audit office, a point both Mr Coe and Mr Rattenbury made on Friday.
Mr Coe also cited former NSW Auditor-General Tony Harris' on ABC Radio on Friday saying that the issues exposed by Dr Cooper's report were the sort of thing that in NSW would warrant a referral to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.
While Mr Harris was also aligned with the Canberra Community Voters party, Mr Coe said irrespective of that fact, his experience in such issues should be taken into account.
Mr Coe also said he believed the "Dickson scandal" needed further investigation, particularly into any potential political involvement in the deal.
He said while he had hoped the public accounts committee would hold an inquiry into the issues, the Canberra Liberals were also separately examining the "legal issues" the audit raised.
But he did not rule out a further no confidence motion against Chief Minister Andrew Barr, despite a similar motion he brought on last year failed on the floor of the Assembly.
