Michael Daley’s active fight against donation transparency measures

NSW Opposition Leader Michael Daley actively fought against attempts to make developer donations transparent during his time at Randwick Council, voting three times against proposed measures. SEE THE SHOCK DOCUMENTS.

• Daley’s secret developer donations history
• Markson: Anti-development stance is feeble’

Labor leader Michael Daley actively fought against attempts to bring in transparency measures around donors and developers three times during his stint at Randwick Council.

He even tried to wind back new rules introduced by other councillors in 2005 to ensure conflicts of interest are declared on the record.

And by not declaring any non-pecuniary conflicts of interest or absenting himself from discussions about DA proposals from developers who had donated to the ALP council team, himself or the ALP NSW branch head office, he may have broken the Randwick Council Code of Conduct that dates back to 1995.

Michael Daley’s Randwick Council voting record on transparency.

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This was significantly beefed up in early 2005 for all councils by a Labor Carr government worried about a string of developer scandals.

In May 2005, Randwick councillors debated a motion to “recognise the potential or perceived corruption effect of campaign donations from development interests to parties and candidates for council elections”. It “requested” councillors who had accepted property developer donations to “declare the details” and absent themselves from any vote where developers will benefit.

At the meeting Mr Daley went against the measures by seconding a motion to not accept the full motion, but just two sections relating to other issues. A division was called and was lost by a single vote.

The next month, on June 28, Mr Daley moved an unsuccessful motion to rescind this transparency motion.

Then a year later, on August 22, 2006, the council again considered a stronger motion to “require” councillors to declare an interest in issues that involve developers who have donated to their election campaigns. Council minutes show Mr Daley was one of only two councillors to vote against this.

Coogee Liberal MP Bruce Notley-Smith, on the council at the time and often argued against developments that did not meet guidelines, said he always had made a point of disclosing if a developer had donated to the Liberal Party, and would not participate in the discussion or the vote.

“You don’t need training to understand that if someone has donated money to your campaign you shouldn’t be voting on their DA,” he said.

In September 2004, the Carr government passed the Local Government Amendment (Discipline Act) in order to “set in place a new set of standards of behaviour that the community expects”. ICAC, the Ombudsman’s office and the Local Government Department all worked to draw up the Model Code of Conduct and councils were legally required to adopt it in early 2005.