The Prime Minister's division says it has "no document" any of its employees ever noticed an inventory of "prime 20 marginals" drawn up for the federal government's controversial commuter automobile parks program.
The declaration to a Senate estimates committee narrows the listing of people that had presumably seen the listing, in line with the Opposition.
"After practically a 12 months of bluff and bluster, it's clear that the choices to misallocate taxpayers' cash for the advantage of the Liberal Social gathering got here from the highest," Labor New South Wales Senator Tim Ayres advised 9News.
In response to a query on discover, the Division stated it "has no document of anybody from the Division of the Prime Minister and Cupboard seeing or receiving a 'prime 20 marginals' spreadsheet".
"Extra folks had been concerned within the Nice Prepare Theft than Scott Morrison's automobile park slush fund," Mr Ayres stated.
The Prime Minister's Workplace didn't reply to that declare in regards to the automobile parks program
However final week a spokesperson stated the workplace was "getting on with delivering key infrastructure tasks as a part of our financial plan to create jobs and prosperity".
The $660 million program was criticised by the Auditor-Normal, which discovered tasks closely favoured seats the federal government held or wished to win.
In July at a Senate estimates listening to, Deputy Auditor-Normal Brian Boyd revealed the presence of a doc he stated "began initially being termed as being prime marginals".
Throughout that listening to, Mr Boyd additionally stated "canvassing" for automobile park tasks beneath the $660 million pre-election program was completed by the workplace of then-City Infrastructure Minister Alan Tudge, and the workplace of the prime minister.
Mr Boyd stated in September-October 2018, Mr Tudge's workplace "had the lead" on the "canvassing", including "there was involvement" from the Prime Minister's Workplace.
In relation to the highest 20 marginals, Mr Tudge stated in August he was "not conscious of such an inventory".
The next day the prime minister didn't reply questions on whether or not he or his workplace had seen the listing.
"The ministers make the choices as they need to," Mr Morrison stated on August 5.
When requested what involvement the prime minister had in this system, Mr Morrison replied: "The ministers made the choices on these packages."
Mr Tudge's then-department additionally indicated none of its employees had seen a "prime 20 marginals" listing both.
"To the most effective of our information, nobody within the division at the moment or now has had that doc," Division Secretary Simon Atkinson stated in July 2021.
Final week, the Prime Minister's Workplace confirmed it refused to seek for paperwork beneath a 9News Freedom of Info request on the bottom it "presents a big problem to the execution" of Mr Morrison's "duties".
"Sadly, I do not assume the prime minister will ever be straight with the Australian folks in regards to the authorities's rorting of the Commuter Automobile Park Fund, as a result of, fairly frankly, he's by no means straight with the Australian folks," Mr Ayres stated.
The federal government has confirmed six of the 48 tasks have been accomplished, virtually three years after they had been introduced.
Final week, the Prime Minister's Workplace defended progress on the automobile parks program.
A spokesperson stated: "It's regular for infrastructure tasks to have lengthy lead occasions", claiming a cause for that was the Federal Authorities having to work with state governments and native councils.