Today, the city of Sydney has released metadata log information that confirms the actual report which was uploaded almost 12 months ago, has not been altered once on the City of Sydney Council’s website since that time. It is quite clear that Angus Taylor was working with a different document.
The document he provided the Daily Telegraph has different formatting, different spacing and different font as well as obviously very different numbers. The New South Wales crimes act provides that the making of a forged document that is intended to influence the exercise of a public duty by a publicly elected official, like the lord mayor of Sydney, is a serious indictable offence punishable by up to 10 years in prison.
It is also clear that the NSW crimes act provides that a failure to make a report about such a document to the NSW police is also a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison after a person becomes aware of the forgery.
Now, the circumstances surrounding Minister Angus Taylor could not be clearer, could not be clearer.
He refused today during question time to do what the City of Sydney has done and release metadata logs that back up his claim that he downloaded that document from the city of Sydney website.
It is a claim that just does not stand up to scrutiny and for which he will not provide any evidence.
At the beginning of this week, the prime minister made it clear that no one was above the law.
A very important statement, given there are a number of journalists in this building that are currently subject to prosecution for doing this job.
But the prime minister is sitting on his hands while this tailor-made scandal about Angus Taylor continues to unfold and get deeper and deeper.
Today it is quite clear that Angus Taylor has refused or declined to make a report himself to the NSW police, the prime minister is clearly not intending to make a referral himself to the NSW police and in the absence of any action by this government to clear this up and ensure that the public has the right to know what has happened here, the Labor party, through the shadow attorney general will be writing to the NSW police, seeking an investigation about all the circumstances surrounding this matter.
