Despite growing concerns over one of the final bidders for the Macquarie Point stadium contract, the Premier has refused to commit to basic transparency over this huge expenditure of taxpayer funds.
Last week the Greens highlighted extensive and worrying allegations facing one of the two final bidders for the stadium. The company, WeBuild, is connected to a string of major issues on interstate projects – including attempts to gouge billions of dollars from the NSW government.
Rather than taking concerns about WeBuild seriously, over the past two days in Parliament we’ve seen the Liberals put their heads in the sand, saying they have to stay at “arm’s length” from these issues. This failure to take responsibility presents a clear risk – as shown by the costly Spirits of Tasmania disaster.
Having promised the Spirits fiasco will never be repeated, already the Rockliff Government looks like its making the same mistakes on the stadium.
Asked by the Greens what he will do to ensure there is transparency and scrutiny over the hugely expensive stadium contract, the Premier fobbed us off. Particularly worrying is the fact that Jeremy Rockliff refused to commit to releasing key details about this contract before it is signed – not even the price.
We saw with the AFL licence agreement that this Premier was happy to sign a dud deal before anyone had seen it – including his own Cabinet. Will the stadium contract be another sign first, explain later affair?
Given the massive amount of public money being spent on the stadium, and the commitments the Premier made to capping its cost, the public has a right to know what the price of this contract is before pen is put to paper. Without this transparency, how can we be assured it won’t be yet another dud deal?
