NSW govt accused of 'obsessive secrecy'

The NSW government is accused of being obsessively secretive amid reports business cases for its stadiums policy weren't presented to a full cabinet.

The NSW government has been accused of "obsessive secrecy" amid reports the business cases for its controversial stadiums spend weren't presented to the full cabinet.

The government was last week forced to release a bundle of secret documents, including material about the multi-billion dollar stadium policy, after an embarrassing parliamentary defeat

The documents that contained business cases by KPMG for the stadiums' spend were never presented to a cabinet meeting, Fairfax Media reported on Monday.

This forced ministers to publicly defend decisions despite not being privy to all the details.

Labor leader Luke Foley says Premier Gladys Berejiklian's party has relied on figures "so rubbery, so dodgy" that its own ministers were kept in the dark.

"It tells you everything you need to know about the obsessive secrecy of Ms Berejiklian's government," Mr Foley told reporters in Sydney.

"What do they have to hide here?"

The government had for months refused to release the bundle of documents, however Government MP Matthew Mason-Cox last week went rogue, crossing the floor to censure colleague and senior minister Don Harwin.

The government leader in the upper house, Mr Harwin, was forced to produce the material or risk being suspended from parliament and a deadline of Friday afternoon was set.

Mr Harwin on Monday said the documents were given to the legislative council on Sunday.

"It's a good thing that people will now know the benefits that we as cabinet do know, we went through them when we made the decision," he told reporters in Sydney.

Mr Harwin didn't directly answer a question about whether it was normal for ministers to have to sell a policy without the full business case.

"The important thing is that the stadiums are what we need to stay in front, to make NSW number one, to attract the events that Sydney needs, that the people of Sydney and NSW want," he replied.

It's understood some of the documents may become available to the public on Tuesday.


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Source: AAP



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