Victorian Elections 2104: Lloyd Williams’ backing for Daniel Andrews ‘linked to skyscraper row’

LIBERAL Party insiders claim a row over a planned skyscraper is the reason businessman Lloyd Williams recently backed Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews.

LIBERAL Party insiders claim a row over a planned skyscraper is the reason businessman Lloyd Williams recently backed Opposition Leader Daniel Andrews.

They claim he did so to spite Coalition Planning Minister Matthew Guy after Mr Guy failed to approve Mr Williams’s proposed 46 storey building.

“In such a tight election race the verbal and financial backing of Lloyd Williams can be the difference between winning and losing,” one of the insiders said.

Mr Williams’s son Nick yesterday denied any connection between the planned Hudson Conway tower block and his father’s recent meeting with Mr Andrews.

“It is a small planning matter in our world,” Nick Williams, who is managing director of Hudson Conway, told the Herald Sun.

“It’s certainly not something that you decide your politics on.

“We haven’t, as in Hudson Conway, or the Williams family, we haven’t thrown our support behind anyone.”

The Herald Sun revealed earlier this month that money began pouring into Labor campaign coffers immediately after Lloyd Williams dramatically intervened in the Victorian election by telling Mr Andrews that casino mogul James Packer would “kick every goal he can for you”.

POLL SHOCK: Williams’ statement caught on camera

He did so during a visit Mr Andrew’s made to Mr Williams’s Mt Macedon racehorse training centre the day before the Melbourne Cup.

Despite Mr Packer later disavowing his close friend Mr William’s endorsement of Mr Andrews, business figures have continued to boost Labor’s election-fighting funds to the tune of an expected $1 million.

The Liberal Party insiders claim Mr Williams had hoped Mr Guy would use his power to override the recent decision of Melbourne City Council’s Future Melbourne committee to object to Mr Williams’s controversial development.

Mr Williams was allegedly furious when Mr Guy went into caretaker mode because of next week’s election without first giving the thumbs up to the radical corkscrew-shaped building.

It will now be up to whoever is Planning Minister after the election to decide whether or not Mr Williams’s skyscraper will be built.

The Liberal insiders, who weren’t prepared to be named, yesterday claimed Mr Williams decided to back Labor in the belief that if it wins the election it will approve the 46 storey building at 248-250 Sturt St, Southbank, which is currently the site of Hudson Conway’s low-rise corporate headquarters.

Mr Williams allegedly believes CFMEU member Brian Tee will become Planning Minister in an Andrews Labor government and that Mr Tee will be sympathetic to the proposed building.

Lord Mayor Robert Doyle was highly critical of the Sturt St building at a council meeting last month, saying it was difficult to find any criterion that it actually succeeded in.

“Height, massing, scale, internal configuration, sustainability, the amenity of the arts precinct and, not least, the aesthetics — it fails miserably on all of those and should be rejected,” Mr Doyle said.

A report last month by Melbourne City Council’s planning department was also highly critical of the 46 storey building, which would contain 228 apartments and various retail outlets.

It said most of the apartments were of a poor standard, with some having no natural light or access to fresh ventilation.

“The proposed height is well outside the nature and intent of the planning scheme,” the report said.

“The additional shadow on the public realm that would be cast by the proposed tower, particularly over the park, even over high trees, is significant.”

The council’s Future Melbourne Committee agreed with the recommendation to reject the proposal and referred it to the Department of Transport, Planning and Local Infrastructure for Planning Minister Mr Guy to make a determination on the matter.

Mr Guy hadn’t done so when the Napthine Government went into caretaker mode on November 4.