NSW Labor leader Michael Daley’s links to Obeid family’s business associates
NSW Labor leader Michael Daley chaired a council committee that signed off on a DA for the Obeid family’s business partners and voted in favour of the port development of a wealthy Labor donor he says is now a friend and who has business ties with ex-Labor powerbroker Joe Tripodi.
NSW Labor leader Michael Daley chaired the Randwick City Council committee that signed off on a development application for the Obeid family’s business partners, making the developer up to $15 million on townhouses built on land formerly zoned open space.
Mr Daley claims he did not want to rezone the land from open space but was obliged to vote with his Labor colleagues, who supported it.
The Daily Telegraph can reveal for the first time Mr Daley’s role in chairing the committee that approved the multimillion-dollar townhouse complex in Maroubra, which made headlines when it was constructed and two of the townhouses were sold to Mark Arbib and Eric Roozendaal.
Eddie Obeid’s son, Moses, also rented one of the townhouses for two years, where Mr Arbib and his wife were neighbours.
Mr Daley, who thanked Eddie Obeid in his maiden speech to parliament in 2005, chaired the committee and signed the minutes on the meeting that granted a development application for a $4.1 million multi-unit development to go ahead on land that was previously private open space.
It made millions for one of the Labor Party’s biggest donors, property developers Brian and Garry Boyd, who also donated to Mr Daley’s Labor team council campaign.
Randwick mayor at the time, Dominic Sullivan, who remains close friends with Mr Daley, went on to become general manager of the Boyd family development company, PAYCE, where he has worked since 2006 and earns $380,000 a year, according to the 2016 annual report.
The Boyds went on to sell each of the 20 townhouses for up to $785,000 each — meaning they stood to make $15 million from the townhouse complex Mr Daley helped approve.
There is no suggestion of impropriety on the part of the Boyds, Mr Sullivan, Mr Roozendaal or Mr Arbib.
Mr Daley also supported the 1999 rezoning of the land from private open space for the Boyds to develop. They bought the land through a holding company, Telmet Ventures, prior to the council agreeing to rezone the land. The Boyds paid $1.42 million for the block of land on January 5, 1999.
When the rezoning was successful, the Valuer General’s valuation of the land went up from $1 million to $1.35 million.
The rezoning went ahead despite strong community objection, including from the Maroubra Precinct Committee and a petition forwarded by then premier Bob Carr, who was the local MP. The building’s exterior wall also breached the height limit for the area by 2m.
Last night Mr Daley said he was unaware the Boyd brothers were business partners and close friends of the Obeid family when he voted in favour of rezoning the land. “I did not know Mr Obeid until 2005 after I was elected to parliament,” he said.
He said he opposed the “spot rezoning” of the site at council “believing that the land had been a community grant to the Maroubra Bowling Club and as such it should be returned to a community use”.
“My recollection is that when this matter was first voted on my position prevailed … the developers came back to council and it was discovered the RSL held freehold title to the land,” he said.
He said he voted against the proposal in caucus but was “outvoted by my caucus colleagues and was bound by their decision”.
The Boyd brothers donated $5000 directly to Labor’s Randwick Council election campaign via one of their company’s, Firetest, on May 25, 2000, ahead of their development application being considered — and $366,000 to the NSW ALP between 1999 and 2006.
Members of the Boyd family were understood to be present in the public gallery of the council chamber during the meeting to discuss their development application.
While Mr Daley, a solicitor, chaired that meeting, he did not disclose the donation during the gathering, despite Randwick City Council’s Code of Conduct in place at the time requiring councillors to resolve conflicts of interest.
Liberal councillor Bruce Notley-Smith declared that his Liberal team had received a donation from the Boyd brothers and recused himself for the vote.
Don’t blame me, blame the system
Clarissa Bye and Rose Brennan
Under-pressure Labor leader Michael Daley has claimed the reason he fought against developer donation transparency during his time as a councillor was because he was actually “in favour of making it much stronger”.
His past conduct is in the spotlight after Daily Telegraph revelations he did not declare any conflicts of interest in a string of cases where property developers donated to Labor’s campaigns before their projects came before Randwick City Council during his time there.
Mr Daley said on Monday “the system at the time was imperfect”.
And the Opposition Leader claimed he simply “didn’t know any donors” when their DA applications came before him at the council, despite his Labor deputy Penny Sharpe yesterday saying she knew hers.
Mr Daley said he did not know who his donors were because it was handled by Labor Party head office.
Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said Mr Daley “has serious questions to answer”.
“The information goes to the heart of Mr Daley’s character, integrity and credibility,” he said.
Mr Daley, who served as deputy mayor on Randwick City Council, said the reason he attempted to wind back tough new transparency rules in 2005 and 2006 was because the push was simply the “whim of a particular councillor”.
He voted three times against a motion to “recognise the potential or perceived corruption effect of campaign donations from development interests and candidates for council election”. Mr Daley even tried to rescind the motion a year later.
But yesterday he claimed he “voted in favour of making it much stronger”. “I wanted to take it further than that, I wanted IHAPS (a form of tribunal) and I wanted parties not to caucus and they voted against that,” Mr Daley said. “If we’d have gone in 2006 with my recommendations that councils not consider any DAs at all we wouldn’t be having this conversation.”
Mr Daley also defended not declaring a conflict of interest on the Argos Investment donations prior to debating its 2006 DA for the Coach and Horses Hotel, saying “I didn’t know they were donors”.
“I’m telling you truthfully, all of these donations were handled at arm’s length from councillors, the same way that they’re handled at arms length from MPs now, and I have acted with honesty and integrity for 23 years in my public life,” he said.
Asked why he did not put on the record his relationship with campaign director and Randwick Labor Club boss Ken Murray, who had a DA for a $5 million renovation of the club before council, he said: “Because there was no requirement to put relationship on the record. Ken Murray is someone I’ve known for 35 years.”
Under the Model Code of Conduct adopted in January 2005, councillors are required to declare a non-pecuniary interest, which could include “a friendship”, and were told “matters before council involving campaign donors may give rise to a non-pecuniary conflict of interests”.
The NSW Office of Local Government yesterday clarified the rules that applied when Mr Daley was a councillor. A spokesman said the relevant Code of Conduct after January 2005 stated “councillors should note that matters before council involving campaign donors may give rise to a non-pecuniary conflict of interest”.
He said councillors were not required to disclose a pecuniary interest as a result of the receipt of a political donation, but, depending on the circumstances, could potentially have been required to declare a non-pecuniary conflict of interest.
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