AAP reported that the Western Australian Opposition has accused Queensland billionaire and mining magnate Mr Clive Palmer of seeking to subvert proper process by lobbying minister Mr Brendon Grylls over an environmental bond.
Mr Grylls released previously withheld documents relating to Mr Palmer and his company Mineralogy after a Freedom of Information request by the WA opposition.
Earlier this week, the FOI commissioner found the decision to withhold 17 documents was deficient because it did not give details of the reasons for the refusal.
Opposition state development spokesman Mr Mark McGowan had sought the documents in order to understand why the company Mineralogy was let off a USD 45 million environmental bond for its Balmoral South project in the Pilbara.
Mr Grylls, who is assisting the minister for state development, released the documents which include emails, diary notes and correspondence on various aspects of the planned mine. He said that "This has been a long process because we have been committed to protecting the rights of third parties in relation to sensitive commercial and business information."
The documents reveal correspondence between Mineralogy and the environment minister's and Mr Grylls' offices in which the company expresses frustration at delays in the Environmental Protection Authority's approvals process.
In one censored email from a Mineralogy representative, Mr Grylls' chief of staff Mr Doug Cunningham said that "Mineralogy needs your help to negotiate an outcome on this if at all possible. I am having no luck getting any contact with the environment minister's office. I do not think it is in the best interest of the state or Mineralogy to resolve a somewhat complex issue with major implication on the viability of the project through an appeals office."
In the email on October 8th 2009, entitled Urgent Action Required, the Mineralogy representative said the company was blindsided through the EPA report.
Mr McGowan said Mr Palmer, as the WA Nationals' biggest donor, had used his political influence to get a favorable outcome. He added that "There's an appeals process under the EPA act which Mr Palmer could and should have followed. What Mr Palmer tried to do, which is clear form the correspondence, is seek to subvert the appeals process, seek to get an outcome which was the removal of the bond exactly what he got."
Mr Grylls said he was pleased the FOI commissioner had allowed him to delete some commercially sensitive information contained in the documents and the names of some individuals. He added that "Unfortunately, for Mr McGowan there is not a skerrick of information in the documents that support his wild allegations of impropriety."
But Mr McGowan was not convinced, alleging that the documents showed Mr Grylls was prepared to drop everything at a moments notice to assist Mr Palmer and do anything to assist in relation to his business dealings.
Mr Palmer said Mr Grylls made no promises. As a result of the whole process, Mr Palmer said, the reputation of WA among the business community had gone right down the toilet" and he expected companies to be more cautious in future communications with the government. He added that "We do believe the government should protect the confidentiality in the way it does business which has been blown to all hell by Mark McGowan."
(Sourced from AAP)
