NSW auditor general says ‘corruption’ can’t be ruled out in $53.5m purchase of contaminated land

Scathing report says government deal was poorly informed' and did not consider Sydney site's clean-up costs, now at $107m

The New South Wales government has been sharply criticised for paying a property developer $53.5m for a contaminated block of land in Sydney seven months after it sold for $38m, without bothering to obtain a valuation or an estimate of the clean-up costs.

In 2016 the state government bought a 6.3-hectare block at Camellia from the property developer Grand 4 Investments Pty Ltd to build a depot for its Parramatta light rail project.