A senior Transport for NSW executive has refused to "speculate" on how former Wagga MP Daryl Maguire allegedly obtained confidential motorway plans.
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One Nation MLC Mark Latham claimed, under parliamentary privilege, that the planned route for the M9 orbital motorway in Sydney was of "enormous financial benefit" to Chinese investors that shared "major financial interests" with Mr Maguire.
Transport for NSW executive director Tim Raimond did tell a NSW Parliament hearing last week that Mr Maguire was not one of the suburban MPs who were given an official briefing on the M9 planned route at Cawdor.
In other news
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) heard last year that Mr Maguire had tried to secure multiple real estate sales commissions from Chinese investment company Country Garden.
"How did Daryl McGuire (sic) get that info," Mr Raimond stated in notes on a meeting about Country Garden submitting detailed proposals for an M9 interchange on its recently purchased Cawdor land despite the exact route being confidential.
Mr Raimond told a budget estimates hearing last week that Transport for NSW deputy secretary Clare Gardiner-Barnes asked him in July 2018 to check "what information was in the public domain and who was briefed in relation to what".
"I think there had been media reports that weekend that had alleged an MP might have given inside information about the Outer Sydney Orbital route to developers. That's why I was asked to check," Mr Raimond told the hearing.
Mr Raimond said he was "able to find out that only local MPs and local councils had been briefed in the days prior to exhibition of the Outer Sydney Orbital corridor" and "no briefing had been conducted with Daryl Maguire".
"That was both before the study area was exhibited in 2015 and before the actual corridor alignment was exhibited in detail in 2018," he said.
Under questioning from Mr Latham, Mr Raimond said he had no explanation as to why Ms Gardiner-Barnes had made a connection between Mr Maguire, Country Garden and land purchases at Cawdor.
"I do not actually know what my boss based her request on," Mr Raimond said.
Mr Latham asked Mr Raimond "what was your final conclusion then about how Daryl Maguire got that information?"
Mr Raimond replied "My job is not to speculate; it was to check on the facts of the matter, and I checked".
Country Garden, now Risland Australia, has denied possessing of confidential information about the motorway and denied that Mr Maguire was involved in its Cawdor land purchases.
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