Cash payments bundled into suitcases, as detailed in an anti-corruption report about an elaborate plan between a property developer and a pair of councillors, will undoubtedly alarm Victorians.
The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission on Thursday handed down findings that outlined how John Woodman bought access to Victorian MPs and local councillors to wield influence over planning decisions.
The premier, Daniel Andrews, was quick to release a statement after the report was tabled signalling that councils would likely be stripped of planning powers – a key recommendation in the report. It had been widely expected that the government would use the Operation Sandon report as fuel for its much anticipated housing plan which will reportedly include winding back council planning powers.
After the release of the report, Andrews sought to draw a line between the appropriateness of people gaining access to politicians at fundraising events via donations and Ibac’s findings about undeclared cash payments being ferried between councillors and Woodman.
“In 2023, we’re not having a situation where Liberal party councillors out in the city of Casey are getting bags of cash, suitcases of cash ... that’s not on,” Andrews said.
He stressed the importance of stamping out the possibility of this occurring at other councils.
But Ibac’s report made serious findings about how a developer like Woodman could buy “privileged access” to state MPs via political donations. This access went to the highest office on Spring Street – the premier’s.
The report made no adverse comments or findings against Andrews, who gave evidence behind closed doors. But, when giving evidence to Ibac, Andrews acknowledged that he attended many fundraisers and a 2017 lunch at a restaurant with Woodman.
The lunch arose from a winning bid at a political fundraising event, a bid of more than $10,000. The premier said he had no recollection of Woodman or his associates raising planning matters with him.
The report also references an intercepted conversation between Woodman and an associated Labor-linked lobbyist, Philip Staindl, in March 2019, in which the latter referenced a conversation with the premier at an earlier function.
It said Staindl had given evidence that the premier asked him to apologise to Woodman for the government’s deferral of a rezoning decision because of allegations of corruption “by a journalist who was an ‘arsehole’”, and praised the developer’s contributions to the Labor party.
In evidence, Staindl had said he could not recall the conversation with “absolute certainty” and may have embellished it when talking to Woodman. But Staindl said that “the general tenor is probably accurate”.
In a private hearing, Andrews did not dispute that he may have had some conversation with Staindl at the function in February 2019. He said he knew Woodman and was aware of his donations to the Labor party. Andrews said it was “highly unlikely” he would have asked the lobbyist to pass on his apologies over the planning decision being deferred, and couldn’t recall doing so.
But the watchdog accepted Staindl’s evidence on the conversation.
Andrews on Thursday said he had no regrets over his association with Woodman, saying he was “focused on the future”.
He said since leading the Victorian Labor party, he had never discussed individual planning matters with people he meets. He also stressed the key matter at the centre of the integrity probe – a rezoning proposal that would have delivered Woodman and landowners a windfall – was rejected by his government before it sacked Casey council in 2020.
Pressed further on his association with Woodman, Andrews said he had no relationship with the developer and had not seen him in a “long time”.
The recommendations by Ibac, including possibly prohibiting donations from high-risk groups such as property developers and winding back council’s planning powers, will take time for the government to wade through and consider.
Much of the matters dealt with in Ibac’s report occurred before Victoria’s strict political donation laws – dubbed the toughest in the country by Andrews – came into effect in 2018.
The laws are currently the subject of a review and Andrews did not rule out his government taking further steps, depending on the recommendations. The government has also committed to considering all of the Ibac’s recommendations.
But it is possible Victorians could be concerned about Ibac’s findings that “weaknesses in the regulation of political donations and lobbying can enable privileged access to, and opportunities to improperly influence, both state and local government decision-makers”.
“[The] attempts to influence senior state politicians further demonstrate the importance of political donations and the significant role of lobbyists in helping to open doors to decision-makers,” Ibac said.
Andrews said balance needed to be found and stressed the complexity of the issue.
“Freedom of association, freedom of political involvement, all of those things like this are not quite as simple as it might seem sometimes,” he said.
It remains to be seen how this balance will be struck.
