Nalder facing cover-up probe call
The push is on for a parliamentary inquiry into whether deliberately deceptive answers were given to State Parliament by the office of Transport Minister Dean Nalder in the wake of Troy Buswell's traffic crash saga.
Labor frontbencher Ken Travers has been pursuing Mr Nalder over almost $3000 in wasted taxpayers' money which was hidden from the Legislative Council when he first asked about it in April.
When the Government failed to release its WA Bicycle Network Plan in time for bike week in mid-March, Mr Travers suspected it had been because the glossy document would have had Mr Buswell's photograph on it. Mr Buswell quit the transport portfolio on March 10 and Mr Nalder replaced him a week later.
After the plan was released on March 29 with Mr Nalder's photograph, Mr Travers used question time to ask whether any previous versions had been printed and was told "no".
It was not until a Budget estimates hearing in July that the Department of Transport admitted 100 copies of the plan had been printed last November at a cost of $2400, but were reprinted to include Mr Nalder's photo at a cost of $2820.
Mr Nalder said yesterday his office gave the incorrect answer because of an error by the Department of Transport, which had apologised.
"This was a simple oversight at the time of answering the question," he said.
Mr Travers said the answer was unsatisfactory.
"I do believe there was a cover-up to avoid highlighting at the time that there had been extra expense due to Mr Buswell's behaviour," he said.
"It's fundamental to our democratic system that MPs are not lied to."
