Prosecutors will consider criminal charges after Victoria’s anti-corruption watchdog found millionaire property developer John Woodman paid councillors and made political donations to influence planning decisions in his favour.
In a damning report released on Thursday, the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (Ibac) found two state MPs and two councillors in Melbourne’s south-east received large amounts of money and donations to advance the interests of Woodman and his clients.
Ibac’s acting commissioner, Stephen Farrow, said any evidence collected during the watchdog’s investigation that may amount to a criminal offence would be sent to the Office of Public Prosecutions for consideration.
“The advice I have is that will be happening very quickly,” he said.
David Wolf, the Ibac deputy commissioner, said the report revealed how a property developer and consultants could “buy access to decision-makers” at a state and local government level.
Wolf said the damage done to the reputation of all Victorian councils would take some time to repair.
The Operation Sandon report confirms that the premier, Daniel Andrews, gave evidence to the investigation but Ibac has made no adverse findings about him.
Ibac accepted evidence that Andrews had asked a lobbyist to pass on his regret about the delay of a rezoning decision to Woodman, which Andrews said he had no recollection of doing.
The report could be used to bolster a major housing plan by the Andrews government to boost density in inner and middle suburbs, reported to include stripping planning powers from councils.
Andrews on Thursday released a statement signalling councils could be stripped of certain planning powers.
“It is the clear position of the government that the role of local councils in significant planning decisions should be reduced and we will have more to say on this matter,” he said.
Andrews said the state government would consider the report’s recommendations and respond in due course.
The Ibac investigation centred on four planning proposals involving Woodman and his clients, including one to rezone land in Cranbourne West as residential to increase its value.
The watchdog found two City of Casey councillors, Geoff Ablett and Sameh Aziz, accepted almost $1.2m in payments and in-kind to further Woodman’s interests within council planning processes.
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Ibac also found former Labor MPs Jude Perera and Judith Graley received financial support for their election campaigns before they sought to influence the then planning minister and other decision-makers to support a rezoning proposal that would have generated a windfall for Woodman and some landowners.
The current MP, Pauline Richards, received donations from Woodman for her campaign, Ibac found, but the report accepted that she had done nothing to further his interests.
Richards on Thursday said she was “pleased” Ibac had confirmed she did not make representations on behalf of Woodman or approach the then planning minister’s office on his behalf.
Ibac’s report made 34 recommendations, including creating a taskforce that develops a model for stripping councils of statutory planning matters by creating independent planning panels. It also recommended the taskforce consider measures to crack down on corruption risks associated with windfall gains that result from land changes, such as potentially banning donations from property developers and overhauling lobbying regulations.
The Greens seized on Ibac’s report to revitalise calls for the Andrews government to make ministerial diaries public – as is the case in New South Wales and Queensland – to improve transparency of meetings with lobbyists.
The party also called for the state government to legislate codes of conducts for ministers and lobbyists and implement spending caps for election campaigns.
While the report made no adverse findings against Andrews, the Greens said the “secretive, cosy relationship” the premier and his ministers had with property developer donors and lobbyists was an “appalling look”.
Samantha Ratnam, the leader of the Victorian Greens, warned that winding back planning powers from councils without overhauling the state’s integrity laws could increase the risk of corrupt conduct among MPs and ministers.
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