{"id":1116,"date":"2019-08-24T19:47:05","date_gmt":"2019-08-24T19:47:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=1116"},"modified":"2023-10-28T11:10:35","modified_gmt":"2023-10-28T03:10:35","slug":"angus-taylor-did-not-disclose-financial-interest-at-grassland-meeting-committee-hears","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/angus-taylor-did-not-disclose-financial-interest-at-grassland-meeting-committee-hears\/","title":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor did not disclose financial interest at grassland meeting, committee hears"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: 20px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Environment officials say Angus Taylor did not declare his financial interest in a company under investigation for poisoning endangered grasslands. Photograph: Mike Bowers\/The Guardian<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a class=\"u-underline\" style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/angus-taylor\" data-link-name=\"auto-linked-tag\" data-component=\"auto-linked-tag\">Angus Taylor<\/a> <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">did not declare at a meeting with environment officials about critically endangered grasslands that he had a financial interest in a company that was under investigation for poisoning them.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">And no notes were taken by the senior department official who attended the meeting in 2017, a Senate committee has heard.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Officials from the environment and energy department gave the evidence at a special hearing of the Senate\u2019s inquiry into the extinction crisis on Friday.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/P84V3jNu4Sk\" width=\"620\" height=\"349\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px; color: #000000;\">The Angus Taylor grassland affair: So what\u2019s the story? \u2013 video explainer<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">The hearing focused on grasslands and, specifically, a March 2017<\/span> <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a class=\"u-underline\" style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/jun\/19\/angus-taylor-met-environment-department-even-as-it-investigated-company-part-owns-alleged-illegal-land-clearing\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">meeting between Taylor, senior officials and the office of the then environment minister Josh Frydenberg<\/a><\/span> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">to discuss the federal government\u2019s designation of the critically endangered grasslands known as the natural temperate grassland of the south-eastern highlands.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">At the time the meeting occurred,<\/span> <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a class=\"u-underline\" style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/jun\/20\/angus-taylors-sister-in-law-asked-if-she-tried-to-influence-endangered-species-listing\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">New South Wales and federal investigations<\/a><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\"> were under way into the poisoning of about 30 hectares that contained the grasses on a property in the state\u2019s Monaro region owned by Jam Land Pty Ltd.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">One of the directors of that company is Richard Taylor, the minister\u2019s brother, and the minister himself holds an interest in the firm via his family investment company, Gufee.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1122 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Taylor1b.jpg?resize=302%2C181&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"302\" height=\"181\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Taylor1b.jpg?w=460&amp;ssl=1 460w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Taylor1b.jpg?resize=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 302px) 100vw, 302px\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Angus Taylor says unnamed Yass farmer, not his family, spurred grassland meetings (<\/span><span style=\"color: #800000;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/jul\/29\/angus-taylor-says-unnamed-yass-farmer-not-his-family-spurred-grassland-meetings\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Read<\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">..<\/span><\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">.)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">At Friday\u2019s hearing, the department\u2019s chief compliance officer, Monica Collins, told senators she was aware before the March 2017 meeting of Angus Taylor\u2019s familial connection to Richard Taylor.<\/span><\/p>\n<aside class=\"element element-rich-link element--thumbnail element-rich-link--upgraded\" data-component=\"rich-link\" data-link-name=\"rich-link-2 | 1\"><\/aside>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">But she took on notice whether the compliance team investigating the case was also aware of the minister\u2019s financial interest in Jam Land.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">\u201cWe were aware that Angus Taylor was the brother of one of the directors of the land we were investigating,\u201d she said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Collins also confirmed the investigation of Jam Land was the only compliance case involving these grasslands.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Geoff Richardson, the assistant secretary of the department\u2019s protected species and communities branch, was one of the officials at the March 2017 meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">He told the hearing Taylor did not disclose his business interest at the start of the meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">\u201cDid Minister Taylor declare ahead of that meeting his business interests in Jam Land?\u201d the Labor senator Katy Gallagher asked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">\u201cNo senator, there was no interest disclosed at the start of that meeting but the meeting was about the listing of the grassland,\u201d Richardson replied.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">\u201cYou don\u2019t think that was relevant?,\u201d Gallagher asked.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">\u201cI don\u2019t have a view, senator,\u201d Richardson said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-1121 alignleft\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Taylor1a.jpg?resize=280%2C168&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" width=\"280\" height=\"168\" srcset=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Taylor1a.jpg?w=460&amp;ssl=1 460w, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/08\/Taylor1a.jpg?resize=300%2C180&amp;ssl=1 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 280px) 100vw, 280px\" \/><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Complaint from Angus Taylor&#8217;s brother prompted environment probe, former senator says (<\/span><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/jul\/30\/complaint-from-angus-taylors-brother-prompted-environment-probe-former-senator-says\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #800000;\">Read<\/span><\/a><span style=\"color: #000000;\">&#8230;)<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">The Greens senator Janet Rice, the committee\u2019s chair, asked again: \u201cAnd minister Taylor did not declare his own personal interest?\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">\u201cNo senator,\u201d Richardson replied.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Taylor and the government have repeatedly stated that the meeting did not discuss the compliance action involving the Taylor company and was focused on the listing process for the grasslands.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Taylor has<\/span> <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a class=\"u-underline\" style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/jul\/29\/angus-taylor-says-unnamed-yass-farmer-not-his-family-spurred-grassland-meetings\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">said the issue was of concern to his constituents<\/a><\/span> <span style=\"color: #000000;\">in the electorate of Hume.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Department officials on Friday reiterated the compliance action was not talked about at the meeting. Richardson said \u201cit was not raised, it was not discussed\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">When Gallagher asked if Richardson took notes at the meeting, he said that he didn\u2019t<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Earlier in the day, the former nationals senator<\/span> <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a class=\"u-underline\" style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/jul\/30\/complaint-from-angus-taylors-brother-prompted-environment-probe-former-senator-says\" data-link-name=\"in body link\">John Williams said he had also raised the issue of the grasslands with Frydenberg<\/a> <\/span><span style=\"color: #000000;\">after hearing Richard Taylor on the radio in late 2017.<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">The committee heard there was a meeting with National party members, Frydenberg and the department\u2019s deputy secretary for the environment protection group Dean Knudson in October 2017 about the issue and broader concerns relating to environment laws and agriculture.<\/span><\/p>\n<div class=\"csColumnGap\" style=\"margin: 0px; padding: 0px 0px 0px 40px; float: left; width: 0.221239%;\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">Knudson said he also didn\u2019t have notes from that meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 20px; color: #000000;\">\u201cWe\u2019ve now been told two fairly critical meetings to this whole issue that the department has not kept a note on it,\u201d Gallagher said.<\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"padding-left: 40px;\">&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #800000; font-size: 20px; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;\"><a style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/aug\/24\/angus-taylor-did-not-disclose-financial-interest-at-grassland-meeting-committee-hears\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\">Source<\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"byline\" data-link-name=\"byline\" data-component=\"meta-byline\"><span style=\"font-size: 16px;\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; color: #800000;\"><a class=\"tone-colour\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/lisa-cox\" rel=\"author\" data-link-name=\"auto tag link\">Lisa Cox<\/a> and <a class=\"tone-colour\" style=\"color: #800000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/profile\/anne-davies\" rel=\"author\" data-link-name=\"auto tag link\">Anne Davies<\/a><\/span><time class=\"content__dateline-wpd js-wpd content__dateline-wpd--modified\" datetime=\"2019-08-24T06:00:20+1000\" data-timestamp=\"1566590420000\"><\/time><\/span><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\" aria-hidden=\"true\"><span style=\"font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\"><span style=\"color: #000000;\">Dingo News |<\/span> <span style=\"color: #993300;\"><a style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/category\/politics-with-angus-taylor\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\">Angus Taylor segment<\/a><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"content__headline \"><span style=\"color: #993300; font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: 16px;\"><a style=\"color: #993300;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.theguardian.com\/australia-news\/2019\/apr\/08\/nsw-government-abandoned-land-clearing-investigation-into-company-linked-to-angus-taylor\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><span style=\"color: #993300;\"><strong><span style=\"color: #993300;\">Company linked to Angus Taylor investigated over alleged illegal landclearing<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n<div id=\"style-wpsecol-d48f1ff1-ea76-16ca-7a55-adb7b507c57d\">\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<style>@media (max-width: 768px) {<br \/>    #wpsecol-d48f1ff1-ea76-16ca-7a55-adb7b507c57d .csColumn {<br \/>        display: block;<br \/>        width: 100% !important;<br \/>    }<br \/>    #wpsecol-d48f1ff1-ea76-16ca-7a55-adb7b507c57d .csColumnGap {<br \/>        display: none;<br \/>    }<br \/>}<\/style>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>&nbsp; Environment officials say Angus Taylor did not declare his financial interest in a company under investigation for poisoning endangered grasslands. Photograph: Mike Bowers\/The Guardian &nbsp; Angus Taylor did not declare at a meeting with environment officials about critically endangered grasslands that he had a financial interest in a company that was under investigation for [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":31842,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[135,569,301,6,31,3,82],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1116","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-australias-move-to-the-right","category-climate-change","category-corruption","category-environment","category-media","category-political-issues","category-politics-with-angus-taylor"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1116"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1116\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/31842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1116"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1116"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1116"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}