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Tuesday, December 10, 2024
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Court of Appeal rebuffs Labor’s Eastlink coverup

Robert Clark 954 Views

The Court of Appeal has today refused to agree to Labor’s attempt to block
public access to a key document relating to its decision to put tolls on
the Mitcham-Frankston freeway, Shadow Attorney General Robert Clark said
today.

Mr Clark said the crucial decision came despite the Bracks government
spending hundreds of thousands of dollars of public money on legal fees in
an attempt to prevent Victorians from hearing the truth about Labor’s toll
decision and its broken election promise.

Instead, the Court of Appeal has sent the case back to the Victorian Civil
and Administrative Tribunal to further consider evidence as to whether the
document was in fact prepared for Cabinet purposes or disclosed a Cabinet
decision.

The Court of Appeal has held it is question of fact as to whether or not
the document was prepared for Cabinet purposes or discloses a Cabinet
decision.

Mr Clark said that meant Labor was required to provide evidence to prove
that a Cabinet-related purpose exists, rather than simply alleging an
exemption applies or putting the documents on the Cabinet table.

“This decision is a welcome victory for openness and accountability and a
rejection of the shameful legal arguments put forward by the government. It
is a huge setback for the government’s attempts to conceal the truth from
the public, in this case and in future cases,” Mr Clark said.

“The government should now do the decent thing and release the document.
However, if the government continues to attempt its cover-up, the
Opposition will look forward to the further VCAT hearing and to further
scrutiny of government evidence.”

The document in question in this case is a document entitled
“Mitcham-Frankston Freeway Project – Final Public Sector Comparator Report”
dated February 2004 and produced by Pricewaterhouse Coopers.

A public sector comparator is a document that is supposed to show what it
would cost to undertake a Public Private Partnership project if the project
were instead undertaken as a traditional public project.

“Our argument has been all along that the document in question was not
prepared for a Cabinet related purpose, but for the purpose of complying
with the Government’s Partnership Victoria policy, which is not a purpose
that entitles Labor to refuse to release the document,” Mr Clark said.