$30m payment for land worth $3m near Western Sydney airport a bargain

The purchase of the land has been called unethical but the deputy prime minister says it will eventually be hailed as a good decision. Michael McCormack has defended the government’s decision to spend $30m on a parcel of land near the Western Sydney airport worth just $3m, arguing in time it will seem a bargain. The deputy prime minister made the comments on 2GB Radio on Monday, after a scathing auditor general’s report accused unnamed officials in his infrastructure department of acting unethically over the sale. Labor wants a separate parliamentary inquiry into the purchase and the former cities and urban infrastructure minister, Paul Fletcher, has blamed the department for failing to tell him and the deputy secretary the true value of the land.

But McCormack claimed the sale eventually will be hailed as a good decision. I appreciate that yes, it was very much over the odds, I appreciate there’s a review going on into how that actually happened. But eventually when there is a need [for] more runways and more infrastructure to be built at Western Sydney Airport, they’ll look back and say, probably: What a bargain that was.