The state government has belatedly disclosed the fees paid to law firm Ashurst for advice on Griffin Coal after being criticised by the Auditor General.
The state government has belatedly disclosed the fees paid to law firm Ashurst for advice on Griffin Coal Mining Company after being criticised by the Auditor General.
The total amount paid to Ashurst for advice to the State Solicitor’s Office from December 2022 to August 2024 was $543,000.
The details were tabled today by the Parliamentary Secretary representing the Attorney General Matthew Swinbourn.
The government had previously claimed the information was commercial in confidence but this was not accepted by Auditor General Carolin Spencer.
“Commercial in confidence is not a reason to prevent me and my staff accessing the information,” she stated.
Ms Spencer noted that “access by my auditors does not equal public disclosure”.
“Not providing a detailed explanation of why the material is commercially sensitive makes it very difficult for me to assess whether the Attorney General (John Quigley) in this instance made a decision based on valid concerns,” she added.
Speaking to ABC radio, Ms Spencer described the government’s approach as unusual and concerning.
“Just because you’ve entered into a contract with a third party as government doesn’t mean that it’s bound by commercial confidentiality,” she said.
“We weren’t able to do our job in relation to the contracts because we were denied access to the contracts for service.”
Shadow energy minister Steve Thomas said the government had been shamed into releasing the information, which he asked for last year.
“In October and November 2023 and I asked questions about payments to a legal firm for advice on Griffin Coal which the government was too embarrassed to answer,” Mr Thomas said.
“The Auditor General looked at that refusal to answer and released a report that was tabled in parliament this week, which identified that the government had also refused to provide this much needed information to the Office of the Auditor General itself.”
The government endeavoured to hide the legal fees even though it was less than the amount paid to other advisers and miniscule next to payments to prop up Griffin itself.
Payments to other firms providing advice on Griffin, including Sternship Advisers, Ad Astra Corporate, KPMG and Preston Consulting, come to $1.36 million.
More significantly, the state government has committed to pay up to $260 million in operating subsidies to Griffin to keep it open until 2026.
The mine operator has been in receivership since 2022.
Along with fellow Collie miner Premier Coal, its supplies are critical to ensuring the state’s coal power stations can keep operating until a planned closure in 2030.
