Former Newcastle Liberal MP Tim Owen has insisted he cannot recall ever seeing a cabinet minute about Newcastle’s light rail that Labor claims was found in his old electorate office.
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But he has stopped short of ruling out that the confidential document could have been discovered there or that he could have seen it.
“You can’t 100 per cent guarantee everything in life,” he said.
Greens MP David Shoebridge labelled Mr Owen’s repetitive evidence of “I don’t recall” seeing the document, given on Monday at the inquiry into planning decisions in Newcastle, as a half-baked response.
But Mr Owen’s Labor successor Tim Crakanthorp also came under fire for declining to attend the inquiry to outline his claims that he found the document in the back of a filing cabinet in December, after he won the October by-election.
Inquiry chairman and Christian Democrat Party MLC Fred Nile thanked Mr Owen for appearing when Mr Crakanthorp wouldn’t.
“Everybody knows it’s because [Mr Crakanthorp] won’t say [he found the document in Mr Owen’s office] under oath,” Liberal MP Catherine Cusack said.
The December 2013 cabinet minute included advice from Transport for NSW that running light rail down the existing heavy rail corridor would be the best transport outcome.
The government announced in May last year it would go with a hybrid option that would run partly down the corridor, into Hunter Street then Scott Street, because it would encourage the city’s revitalisation.
But, according to the document, this option could cost an extra $100 million.
Mr Owen told the inquiry that he had not discussed with the then lord mayor Mr McCloy’s preference for light rail to run down Hunter Street, although he knew of it because of Mr McCloy’s comments on the subject that had been reported in the media.
“No developer has ever come to me to say it is important that routing of the light rail is ‘X’ so I can build on ‘Y’,” Mr Owen said.
And he said no minister had asked which route he favoured.
“I had little influence, in fact no influence, on that [cabinet] decision,” he said.
He said the government’s plan for a change of mode of transport in the city was predicated on the Hunter Development Corporation’s 2009 city strategy, which had been endorsed by the previous Labor government.
Of the cabinet minute, Mr Owen said: “[It would] be very unusual that I would have access to a cabinet document.”
