Mr Barr told the ACT parliament he had indicated the government's support to waive the lease variation charge on the site in September 2012. With the caretaker period beginning on September 14, 2012, before the October election, it was presumably one of the final acts of the Gallagher government.

The $7.5 million waiver was announced in the 2013 budget and the Liberals have peppered Labor in the ACT parliament this week with questions about whether the benefit went to the Brumbies or to a private developer, given the Brumbies' decision to sell the land. The land was sold for $11.375 million and is now being developed by Graham Potts' Amalgamated Property Group.

The Brumbies moved to the University of Canberra and the deal has sparked considerable unease, including an investigation commissioned by the Brumbies board and outgoing chief executive Michael Jones, which is now with the police and suppressed by the courts.

Liberal Leader Jeremy Hanson asked Mr Barr on Thursday when he became aware that former Labor deputy chief minister, now development consultant, David Lamont was advising the University of Canberra, the Brumbies and the property developer simultaneously. Mr Barr said the suggestion was not true.

Mr Hanson revised his question to suggest that Mr Lamont had been advising at least two of the parties and possibly all three, but Mr Barr continued to insist: "I don't believe that that is, in fact, a statement of fact."

Asked what role he understood Mr Lamont to have had, Mr Barr said Mr Lamont had a role with the University of Canberra.

"Mr Lamont had no role in the government decision-making process associated with providing both a ... budget grant, a capital grant, of $5 million towards the Brumbies headquarters, nor did Mr Lamont have any role in the ACT government's decision to also provide additional support to that project by way of a lease variation charge waiver," he said.

Mr Barr insisted full due diligence had been done before the decision was made to waive the $7.5 million lease variation charge and the decision had been made in light of advice from treasury that it was "supportable".

When asked earlier in the week what conversations he had with Mr Lamont about the deal, Mr Barr did not directly answer the question. But on Thursday when asked again whether he had any discussions with Mr Lamont about the waiver of the lease variation charge, Mr Barr admitted he had.

"I believe I would have discussed the matter with Mr Lamont once I'd made a public announcement ... in relation to the government's intention," he told the Assembly.

"I wrote to Mr Fagan, then the CEO of the Brumbies, in September of 2012 indicating that the government was prepared to consider a waiver up to a certain value.

"Then subsequently, once the value was assessed by the ACT planning and land authority through the usual processes, I approved a waiver of the value of just a little over $7.5 million with the specific purpose of that being allocated towards the new project at the University of Canberra."

Mr Lamont is the university's project adviser on campus development. The Liberals also mistakenly suggested Mr Lamont had been given an adjunct professorship with his area of expertise listed as "contracts, construction management, project management", but the university said that was a different David Lamont.

The university would not answer questions on Thursday about the redevelopment of Arscott House, a building it was gifted by the ACT government for student accommodation but which the auditor-general noted last year remained undeveloped.

Nor would it answer questions about how much sponsorship the university provides to the Brumbies in cash and kind, nor whether another entity had paid a portion of that sponsorship – a question that was raised by the Liberals in the Assembly this week but was left unexplained.