A second high-ranking government officer has admitted misleading an ACT Government estimates committee hearing last month on the contentious gas-fired power station project.
ActewAGL's first choice for the $2billion project was on industrial land in Hume, but the project was subsequently shifted to neighbouring Tuggeranong, triggering an outcry from surrounding suburbs, causing it to be dramatically scaled down.
Since then the Government has distanced itself from site selection, saying ActewAGL chose the site.
Land Development Agency acting chief executive Philip Mitchell had initially told the estimates committee hearing that site selection was done in consultation with the Chief Minister's Department.
But when Mr Mitchell was questioned about this by the Opposition during the hearing, the Chief Minister's Department deputy chief executive, David Dawes, clarified Mr Mitchell's earlier evidence, saying the department was not involved in site selection.
Mr Mitchell then corrected himself, saying, ''I apologise; I have given incorrect information there in reading from my notes.
''I apologise for that. No one from CMD was involved.''
Mr Mitchell has since written to the committee's chairman pointing out his first statement was correct, and he should not have corrected it.
Mr Dawes revealed on Friday that he had corrected his own evidence to the estimates committee as well.
Freedom of Information documents, evidence before estimates and media interviews indicate the Chief Minister's Department was involved in site selection from at least June last year.
ActewAGL's incoming chief executive, Michael Costello, and manager of commercial development, Brooke O'Mahoney, told The Canberra Times on May 30 that Ross McKay, from the department's major projects unit, worked with ActewAGL ''looking for a site'' from June or July last year.
FoI documents show that in August Mr Dawes told Chief Minister Jon Stanhope the gas-fired power station and data centre was the first project expedited by the new major projects group.
That group was announced in December by Mr Stanhope who said it would speed up project delivery and coordinate Government services, including land and planning functions.
''Private-sector investment in the ACT is already strong but we operate in a highly competitive and fast-moving investment market. What we need to be able to do is proactively explore opportunities with potential investors and then move quickly to secure these investments for the territory,'' he said.
But in estimates last month, Mr Stanhope said the Government did not get involved in site selection for the project, billed as one of the territory's most significant.
''That is a commercial decision for the proponents; that is not a decision for the Government. That is not the Government's decision; that is the proponents' decision. It is the proponents who have expertise in running, managing, building and developing data centres and power utilities, not the ACT Government.''
Mr Dawes said yesterday the Land Development Agency steered ActewAGL away from an industrial site in Hume Block 7, Section 21 in 2001. Between 2001 and 2007, the agency's significant works to reconfigure the block for industrial purposes raised its value to $50million on the open market.
In May and July ActewAGL's chief executive, John Mackay, sought another Hume site, Block 18, Section 23.
This block and section number are not included on the ACT heritage register of Aboriginal places. Mr Dawes said that was the reason why it was chosen.
But for this very reason ActewAGL later rejected it, because the land needed analysis to determine if indigenous artefacts were likely to occur there.
The site chosen did not require analysis because it was further away from the creek, where potential Aboriginal camp sites were likely to be found.
Mr Dawes said the final site in Tuggeranong, zoned broadacre, was chosen by ActewAGL and was the preferred site of the Government's. It was valued at between $10 million and $15 million.
Block 18, Section 23, Hume had not been valued because it had been ruled out.
ACT Opposition members on the estimates committee, Vicki Dunne and Brendan Smyth, want to reconvene to question the two senior public servants who have admitted misleading the committee.
Mr Smyth said the Canberra community had a right to know just how much the Government was involved and why the Chief Minister did not step in when his officials misled the committee.
Acting Chief Minister Katy Gallagher said information blacked out on FoI documents may have been commercial-in-confidence, but the Government had nothing to hide.
The Government's major projects group did not rule out earlier choices. Mr Dawes' correction of earlier evidence was a sign of giving the community the respect he thought it deserved.
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