The Baird government is trying to keep secret key documents related to the $13 billion WestConnex motorway project, claiming they are "privileged" and should be only available to MPs who are forbidden from revealing their contents.
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Plans for the WestConnex, which is largely to cut under the inner west, are in a state of flux. The government has pushed back the date for detailed plans to be released for the contentious M4 East section of the project under Parramatta Road well into next year.
The move to declare a further tranche of documents as privileged is being challenged by the Greens in the upper house, leading to the appointment of an independent arbiter, Keith Mason, QC, a former president of the NSW Court of Appeal, to rule on the matter.
In March the upper house supported a motion calling for the release of all documents relating to the WestConnex motorway, the state government's largest infrastructure project.
The documents were handed to the upper house in April, but Roads and Maritime Services claimed privilege over 16 of the 38 boxes of documents, meaning MPs could inspect them but not reveal their contents to the public.
After examining them, Greens MP Mehreen Faruqi wrote to the Clerk of the Parliaments David Blunt on July 4 challenging the privilege claim over a selection of the documents.
Precisely what type of documents and the nature of the privilege claim – such as legal or commercial-in-confidence – cannot be disclosed.
Mr Mason was asked to rule on whether some or all of the documents under challenge should be released. A decision was expected before Parliament resumed next month.
Dr Faruqi said on Thursday the community was "concerned and sceptical that the WestConnex toll road doesn't stack up on environmental, transport or financial grounds and has a right to know what's driving this project".
"The community has been demanding transparency on the business case for the $13.5 billion WestConnex toll road and the government simply isn't listening," she said.
The government had resisted calls for an upper house inquiry into the motorway.
Shooters and Fishers MP Robert Borsak said last month he had agreed to a request from Roads Minister Duncan Gay and WestConnex Delivery Authority chairman Tony Shepherd that he vote against the proposed inquiry, which was proposed by Dr Faruqi and which would have had the support of Labor.
Property owners who had previously been told their residences would be acquired for the project had been asked to wait another year.
