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Minns should have declared ‘conflict’ over Rosehill deal: inquiry
By Michael McGowan and Max Maddison
The NSW corruption watchdog has been asked to probe the Rosehill deal after a parliamentary inquiry said it had unanswered questions over how the plan was hatched and accused Premier Chris Minns of failing to declare a “conflict of interest”.
On Friday, the upper house inquiry into the proposal to develop Rosehill Racecourse into a “mini-city” of 25,000 homes published its report, saying it had decided to refer the matter to the Independent Commission Against Corruption “given the significant conflicting evidence regarding the proposal to develop Rosehill Racecourse”.
NSW Premier Chris Minns (left) and former One Nation MP turned independent Mark Latham.Credit:
That included what they labelled “unanswered questions surrounding the involvement of the premier and concerns regarding direct dealings and conflicts of interest”.
The inquiry also raised concerns about what it called a series of “allegations of illegal activity and other conduct that is plainly not acceptable” regarding Racing NSW, the sport’s regulator.
Those claims prompted it to call for a separate probe into Racing NSW, a decision CEO Peter V’landys criticised as politically motivated.
“The inquiry was unfortunately hijacked and became a forum for agendas, particularly from participants who have been previously penalised for dishonesty or malpractice by Racing NSW,” he said.
The controversial decision to refer the report to the ICAC became a flashpoint after it was leaked to the media on Wednesday ahead of its final release.
The report’s findings and recommendations were not unanimous, with three Labor MPs on the inquiry writing a dissenting report saying the referral was “calculated to cause political damage”.
In his foreword to the report, committee chair Scott Farlow revealed that the leak had been referred to parliament’s privileges committee for investigation.
“It is disappointing that this legitimate step of the committee was disclosed to the media prior to the tabling of this report,” he wrote.
The report reveals that former One Nation MP turned independent Mark Latham, a strident critic of the Rosehill sale, was a driving force behind the referral and had unsuccessfully sought to insert a recommendation that the committee refer Minns himself to the ICAC.
Minns on Thursday issued a stinging rebuttal to reports of the referral, insisting Liberal and crossbench MPs were spreading “unsubstantiated rumours” for political point-scoring.
“We’ve seen the politicisation of the ICAC for a very long time in NSW. It is a political sport, but that doesn’t make it right, and I think it’s a leading indicator [of] why more people don’t enter politics,” Minns said.
The Sydney Morning Herald has previously revealed the Rosehill redevelopment proposal was first brought to the government’s attention after a meeting between Minns and the Australian Turf Club’s head of corporate affairs, Steve McMahon, in October last year.
Minns and McMahon served together on Hurstville Council and have been friends for some 25 years, and the committee found the premier “should have declared” a conflict over the matter.
“Furthermore, given this conflict of interest, the premier should therefore have met with the chair and/or the chief executive officer of the Australian Turf Club,” it stated.
The report made a series of criticisms of the proposal, as well as raising concerns about Racing NSW, the sport’s regulator. Though many of the criticisms were outside the scope of the inquiry, it said it had received a “significant volume of confidential evidence” about Racing NSW.
That evidence included “allegations of illegal activity and other conduct that is plainly not acceptable from a regulatory body”, prompting it to recommend a separate inquiry into the regulator.
Farlow said the Rosehill proposal had progressed at “warp speed”, saying the meeting with the premier had occurred within just two business days.
He acknowledged the premier himself had not been referred to the corruption watchdog, rather the committee referred the report on the advice of the parliamentary clerk.
“There’s only so much the committee can investigate, and that is why there’s a referral that has been made ... that was support[ed] by all cross-party members of the committee,” Farlow said.
‘Inaccurate and misleading’
But Minns on Thursday said it was an “outrageous allegation” to suggest meeting McMahon amounted to corrupt conduct.
The committee’s report also took significant issue with Minns’ characterisation of the meeting with McMahon as a “meet and greet” on his ministerial diary disclosures, describing it as “inaccurate and misleading” given “the long-standing friendship of Mr McMahon and the premier and the nature of the matter discussed at the meeting”.
The committee recommended diary disclosure to mandate an “accurate description of attendees, purpose and any conflicts of interest” and to widen the scope of the disclosures to include shadow ministers.
Minns said he did not regret characterising the meeting in that fashion, saying he had publicly disclosed the subject of the get-together.
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