Angus Taylor apologises to Clover Moore 'unreservedly' over false travel figures

Sydney lord mayor has received a letter from the minister conceding the numbers he relied on ‘were not correct’

Angus Taylor has apologised “unreservedly” to Sydney’s lord mayor after relying on falsified figures to launch a public attack on her council’s climate record.

Clover Moore’s office received a letter on Thursday afternoon from the energy minister almost a week after he conceded he had relied on false data while publicly lambasting her for the council’s travel record.

“It is now clear to me that the correspondence I sent you on 29 September 2019 included numbers that were not correct,” Taylor wrote.

“Given this, I regret not clarifying those figures with you before writing, and relying on those figures in media commentary, I apologise unreservedly.”

The letter represents a change from Taylor’s position last week, when he refused to apologise and labelled the affair a “conspiracy theory”.

The Guardian revealed on Wednesday that Taylor’s office had relied on figures that grossly inflated the council’s expenditure on travel during a public attack over its declaration of a climate emergency earlier this year.

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Moore’s office received a letter from Taylor on 30 September criticising what the minister said was a $15m travel bill during 2017-18 and suggesting Moore could reduce the council’s carbon emissions by cutting down on international travel.

The letter had already been leaked to the Daily Telegraph, which reported the figures. The numbers, though, were incorrect. When the council queried the newspaper about the source, it provided a copy of what purported to be a council annual report it had been given by Taylor’s office.

The report had been altered to show spending of “$14.2” on domestic travel for councillors and “$1.7” on international travel. Those figures were completely different to those that appeared in the annual report published on the council’s website, which showed just $4,206.32 on domestic travel and $1,727.77 on international travel for councillors. The total travel budget for all employees was $229,000.

Taylor insists his office downloaded its copy of the report from the council’s own website. But the council produced evidence showing that its publicly-available annual reports had only ever contained accurate figures.

Angus Taylor: the doctored documents mystery will weaken trust in politicians and journalism

Metadata and screenshots from the council’s content management system showed the annual reports on its website had not been changed since they were uploaded with the accurate figures 11 months ago.

The revelations prompted Labor to refer the matter to New South Wales police, asking for an investigation of whether a forgery had been created to influence the mayor in her public duties.

That referral is still being considered by NSW police. Taylor has not yet provided evidence that the document his office relied upon ever existed on the council’s website.

Instead his office has suggested that there may have been multiple versions of the document on the council’s website because the files currently online – a PDF and a Word document – have minor formatting differences. The council and Labor have rejected that explanation.

aquascoot wrote on Nov 1^st, 2019 at 10:33am:


The Conservative play book....Act corruptly and then deny any fault....Then when your corruption is exposed keep denying and attack those who question any wrong doing....Trump 101!!!

Another deadbeat LNP senator eating his own vomit for telling lies !!

You're right.

aquascoot wrote on Nov 1^st, 2019 at 10:33am:


Just highlights the sort of person you are. So the message is, attack people by telling outright lies and if your caught out just keep lying! What sort of children would you raise aqua? Tipical lying arsole liberal.

aquascoot wrote on Nov 1^st, 2019 at 10:33am:


Just highlights the sort of person you are. So the message is, attack people by telling outright lies and if your caught out just keep lying! What sort of children would you raise aqua? Tipical lying arsole liberal.