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Infrastructure Australia Submission - M5 Expansion Project (2008 and 2009) documents released

Submitted by gianni on 4 August 2010 - 3:46pm.

NSW 2008 and 2009 Submissions to Infrastructure Australia - M5 Expansion Project

Background
On Wednesday, 9 June 2010 Greens MP and transport spokesperson Lee Rhiannon won Upper House support for the following motion:

Ms Rhiannon moved, according to notice, as by leave amended: That, under standing order 52, there be laid upon the table of the House within 21 days of the date of passing of this resolution all submissions for funding from the Building Australia Fund, made by the government to Infrastructure Australia in 2008 and 2009 in the possession, custody or control of the Premier or the Department of Premier and Cabinet, and any document which records or refers to the production of documents as a result of this order of the House.

The motion sought to force the release of all previously secret submissions by the NSW Government for federal government Infrastructure Australia funding. The submissions were due to be available for public scrutiny on 30 June 2010.

The government failed to fully comply with the motion and instead produced one box of blacked out documents and another privileged box that could be only seen by MPs. The documents were not permitted to be removed from the viewing room and MPs were not allowed to make copies, though they could take notes. The Department of Premier and Cabinet provided a letter outlining the reasons for why documents were deemed privileged.

Heavily redacted versions of the documents were made available to the public, once again, only in hardcopy form. Following the release, media reports appeared summarising the contents.

The redacted nature of the documents means that critical information has been withheld from the public. This applies in particular in any material the NSW Government has deemed commercial in confidence.

EcoTransit Sydney has scanned in the available documents relating to the M5 Expansion Project (Staged Project), that were submitted to Infrastructure Australia in 2008 and 2009. The following documents are available can be seen here.