Jodi McKay: Labor’s WestConnex critic failed to declare interest to Parli

LABOR’S chief WestConnex critic Jodi McKay lives just 300m from where an emissions smoke stack is set to be installed but has failed to declare the interest to parliament.

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LABOR’S chief WestConnex critic Jodi McKay lives just 300m from where an emissions smoke stack is set to be installed but has failed to declare the interest to parliament.

The Opposition’s roads spokeswoman, who has never missed an opportunity to bag the project, wrote to the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner, John Evans, last year seeking clearance to see if it was a conflict to talk about the Haberfield stack and was told she should not make public comment about it.

Ms McKay, dubbed “Saint Jodi” after blowing the whistle on developer donations during ICAC hearings in 2014, pointed to the part of the advice from Mr Evans yesterday in ­defending her approach, saying Mr Evans had said that she could talk about the stacks “in general”.

Labor MP for Strathfield Jodi McKay — AKA Saint Jodi — has been a fierce critic of the massive Westconnex development. Picture: Justin Lloyd)

She also claimed she had declared her interest at public meetings in her electorate of Strathfield.

Ms McKay also said she had voiced her conflict at her first ever meeting with Sydney Motorway Corporation, although confirmed she had never put that ­declaration in writing.

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Ms McKay has been an ardent critic of WestConnex, on everything from compulsory acquisition of homes, to tolls, to “secrecy” around the project, but she said yesterday she supported the motorway.

Dozens of residents attended an anti-WestConnex protest at Pioneer Park, Leichhardt.

Ms McKay did refer to the Haberfield stack — to be located 300m from her Ashfield home on Parramatta Rd — in comments to the ABC just 10 days prior to receiving the advice from the Parliamentary Ethics Commissioner.

“There is no way that residents of Homebush or Haberfield will let the Government get away with a stack in their suburb,” she said in June 2015.

Strathfield MP Jodi McKay speaks during a recent anti-Westconnex rally.

Summer Hill MP Jo Haylen at a recent protest against the Haberfield ventilation stack and construction work of the WestConnex.

In November 2015, she told parliament of a “pattern of secrecy and deception around the project”.

In parliament in August 2015, Ms McKay said: “I am concerned about the location of the stacks and the treatment of residents. The two stacks will be unfiltered. I can only guess it is a decision made on cost, not on evidence.”

Mr Evans’ advice states: “In my opinion you have a private non-financial conflict of ­interest arising from your residence in Ashfield, and which could reasonably be perceived by a fair-minded member of the public to adversely affect your impartiality in dealing with local issues concerning the proposed WestConnex emission stack at Haberfield.

“It didn’t cross my mind to tell parliament,” Ms McKay said. “I disclosed it to Sydney Motorway Corporation.”

A spokesman for the Corporation said their records showed she had not.