{"id":2694,"date":"2019-12-04T09:47:32","date_gmt":"2019-12-04T09:47:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/?p=2694"},"modified":"2023-10-31T03:56:49","modified_gmt":"2023-10-30T19:56:49","slug":"senators-call-for-angus-taylor-inquiry-over-clear-breaches-in-grasslands-saga","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dingo.news\/voice\/senators-call-for-angus-taylor-inquiry-over-clear-breaches-in-grasslands-saga\/","title":{"rendered":"Senators call for Angus Taylor inquiry over ‘clear breaches’ in grasslands saga"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n
\n
\n

 <\/h2>\n

Coalition denounces call from Labor-Greens dominated Senate committee as \u2018party political attack\u2019<\/span><\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
\n
\n

 <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

\n
\"\"<\/picture><\/span><\/div>\n<\/figure>\n

The majority of a Senate committee wants the prime minister\u2019s department to investigate
\nAngus Taylor and the treasurer, Josh Frydenberg, over the grasslands saga. Photograph: Mick Tsikas\/AAP<\/span> <\/span><\/p>\n

\n

 <\/p>\n

A Senate committee has recommended the prime minister, Scott Morrison, order an inquiry into the energy minister, Angus Taylor, after it found Taylor \u201cconsciously used his position as an MP and minister\u201d to try to influence an investigation into clearing of grasslands at a property he and his family part-own.<\/span><\/p>\n

The majority of the Labor-Greens dominated committee want the Department of the Prime Minister and Cabinet to investigate the energy minister and treasurer Josh Frydenberg\u2019s handling of the grasslands saga after finding it amounted to a major breach of ministerial standards.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIt is inconceivable that Mr Taylor was unaware that he and his family stood to benefit directly from his actions,\u201d the interim report of the Senate\u2019s faunal extinctions inquiry states.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It was tabled on Wednesday with backing from the Greens and Labor, but not from government senators, who said the opposition and the Greens had used the inquiry to make \u201cparty political attacks\u201d.<\/span><\/p>\n

In a dissenting report, Coalition senators said the \u201cevidence provided by the department confirms Mr Taylor had acted appropriately and in accordance with the rules.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cIn submitting this dissenting report, Coalition senators note and deplore the blatant abuse and misuse of the Senate\u2019s committee process.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n

They said the Senate had voted multiple times against holding an inquiry into the matters detailed in the report. In July, government and One Nation senators blocked two attempts to launch an inquiry into the conduct of Frydenberg and Taylor.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

\u201cIt is disappointing that Labor and the Greens have seen fit to ignore the will of the Senate to hijack this inquiry for a clearly partisan political purpose,\u201d they said.<\/span><\/p>\n

The government senators said Taylor had made detailed statements to the House of Representatives and the department had confirmed compliance matters were not discussed at the March 2017 meeting.<\/span><\/p>\n

The report examines whether Taylor, when he was the assistant minister for cities, acted improperly when he asked for briefings on the listing protections for the critically endangered natural temperate grassland of the south-eastern highlands.<\/span><\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s family are major landholders on the Monaro plains, where the majority of these ecological communities are located, and at the time a company in which Taylor and his brothers had interests was under investigation by the federal environment department for poisoning grasslands at Corrowong.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/div>\n

The company, Jam Land, faces potential fines of more than $10m if proved. Taylor has a shareholding through his family company Gufee and his brother Richard is a director.<\/span><\/p>\n

A Guardian Australia investigation revealed Taylor requested and was given briefings from the environment department on the grasslands protections in March 2017 and that compliance officers were asked to attend by the office of Frydenberg, the then environment minister.<\/span><\/p>\n

Frydenberg\u2019s office later sought advice on whether protections for the grasslands could be weakened and whether that could be done without making such a decision public.<\/span><\/p>\n

In its report, the committee considered evidence given by the department in public hearings, as well as email correspondence between the department and Frydenberg\u2019s office, which was released to Guardian Australia under freedom of information laws.<\/span><\/p>\n