Mystery of the doctored documents: Angus Taylor and the climate attack on Sydney's lord mayor

Exclusive: story published in Daily Telegraph was based on false figures for travel expenditure purporting to be from council’s annual report

Angus Taylor baselessly accused Sydney’s lord mayor of driving up carbon emissions by spending $15m on travel, a claim that was later backed up with a doctored council document provided to the Daily Telegraph, which reported the figure.

On 30 September, the Telegraph reported on page three that the “City of Sydney Council’s outlay on flights outstrips that of Australia’s foreign ministers”.

The story quoted a letter sent by Taylor to the mayor, Clover Moore, saying the council’s annual report for 2017-18 “shows your council spent $1.7m on international travel and $14.2m on domestic travel”, contrasting the spending with Moore’s declaration of a climate emergency in June.

After the story was published, Moore vigorously disputed the figures on Twitter. In subsequent emails between the Telegraph and Moore’s office, the paper justified the figures using a document supplied by Taylor’s office, purporting to be the council’s annual report.

City of Sydney’s publicly available annual report shows councillors spent $1,727.77 on overseas travel and $4,206.32 on domestic travel. In total, the council spent $229,000 on travel during 2017-18, under its $300,000 budget.

But the document provided to the Telegraph shows wildly different figures, which appeared in a strange format unlike the one used elsewhere in the annual report.

It is unclear who altered the document. There is no suggestion that Taylor himself was responsible.

The council is adamant that it did not alter the figures. It said it had checked the metadata to establish that the report had not been changed on its website since being posted in November 2018.

Moore wrote to Taylor again on Tuesday saying she was referring the Daily Telegraph to the Press Council over its erroneous reporting and asking Taylor for his version of events.

“Could you verify The Daily Telegraph’s claims that the erroneous documents originated in your office, or is my office being misled by the newspaper’s journalists?” Moore wrote.

“It is my deep belief that in dealing with important and pressing issues, it is our responsibility as elected officials to deal in facts. Providing false information to journalists and the public further erodes the community’s confidence in elected representatives to lead and serve.”

Taylor’s office did not respond to a request for comment before deadline.

So, Angus was talking a load of .... bull?


Geddit? 

The GetUp! indoctrinated supporters quickly rally to support their fraudulent sauce of misinformation.

Ah but GetUp! feeds their little conspiracies to the Guardian as the ABC won't print their propaganda rubbish anymore.

philperth2010 wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2019 at 10:28pm:



You forgot to highlight this bit. Poisoned chalice anyone?

philperth2010 wrote on Oct 23^rd, 2019 at 10:28pm:



You forgot to highlight this bit. Poisoned chalice anyone?

His department has been caught out lying and altering documents they provided to the Daily Telegraph!!!

Taylor needs to explain himself...

This was no accident it was a deliberate lie...

Are you Angus Taylor dickhead???