A bid to host the pesticides authority in Armidale at a property hit in an unsolved arson mystery appeared less than a month after the fire destroyed a club at the site.
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Federal government officials revealed a tender to host the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority's offices in the northern NSW town was sent to the government on October 7, 2016, three weeks after the attack.
The tender also appeared more than a month before the agency's move from Canberra to Armidale was decided by a relocation order from Finance Minister Mathias Cormann on November 24 that year.
Agriculture department officials said it advertised the government was looking for a site to host the agency in Armidale on September 15, 2016, a day before the arson attack.
Officials revealed the timeline to an estimates hearing for the rural affairs committee as senators pushed the Agriculture department's secretary Daryl Quinlivan to table a document it withheld in a freedom of information request by the former lessee at the property.
Kate Richards, who owned and managed the Armidale Club at 91 Beardy Street when arson destroyed the building, asked the department to give her documents relating to the site of its new home in Armidale.
A letter rejecting her request showed a document was dated September 30, 2016, only two weeks after the arson attack.
The Coalition government on Tuesday refused to give that document to senators, saying it was commercial and that its release was against the public interest.
Liberal senator Richard Colbeck said releasing the information would set a precedent that could stop businesses making commercial arrangements with the federal government and fearing it could risk publication of their commercially sensitive information.
"This outcome would materially impact the Commonwealth's ability to negotiate and contract with commercial entities," he said.
The Agriculture department did not tell officials the author of that document.
The proposal to host the pesticides authority at 91 Beardy Street appeared in an initial search for tenders run by the Agriculture department, however government officials said there was no evidence the site's former owner Burgess and Bayfoyle was involved.
Following a later search for tenders run by the pesticides authority, Queensland-and-Victoria-based developer Stirloch Group won the contract to build a two-storey office at 91 Beardy Street and neighbouring property 102 Taylor Street. The APVMA has signed a 15-year lease with the company for its space in the building, flagging possible extensions to come.
Burgess and Bayfoyle sold the property to Stirloch Group in March this year.
A coronial inquest into the Armidale Club's demise determined it fell to arson but failed to find the culprit.
