The Kurri Kurri Gas Fired Power Station
In 2020, the Morrison Government threatened to get their state owned power company, Snowy Hydro, to build a gas fired power station at Kurri Kurri in the Hunter Valley of NSW if private companies didn’t build one first.
We set about investigating who was behind these proposals and set to benefit from the Government building a new gas-fired power station in the Hunter.
What we uncovered
Our investigations found a number of notorious Hunter businessmen were linked to this project and the associated pipeline, the Hunter Gas Pipeline.
Former Newcastle Mayor Jeff McCloy held a contract to buy the land where the federal government is proposing to build the gas-fired power station and where Morrison announced his plans. During an ICAC hearing regarding tens of thousands of dollars in secret donations to Liberal party candidates, McCloy referred to himself as being treated like a “walking ATM.”
We also highlighted that the gas pipeline, set to supply gas to the Kurri Kurri Power station had one of their owners, RLMS, claim to be an “independent consultant” while securing crucial government approvals while another owner, Hilton Grugeon, was investigated by ICAC for money given to liberal candidates to “curry favour”.
This investigation helped spark political backlash to the Kurri Kurri project which got covered extensively in the media – you can read about it in The Guardian and the Australian Financial Review.
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