Dodgy developer donated $2500 to Premier Dan Andrews
Daniel Andrews has denied he ever talked about “planning matters” with a developer embroiled in a corruption scandal, but said he was aware John Woodman was working as a property lobbyist for alleged mafia figure Tony Madafferi.
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Daniel Andrews took $2500 from a developer embroiled in a corruption scandal, while it can be revealed a Premier’s charity golf day was the brainchild of the embattled tycoon.
Three days after the Herald Sun reported that Mr Andrews had dined with Ferrari-driving developer John Woodman at the upmarket Flower Drum restaurant, the Premier fronted reporters on Tuesday to confirm he received the donation from the developer for his 2002 Mulgrave campaign.
And his office confirmed the 2017 Premier’s Charity Golf Day — which the Flower Drum lunch was set up to discuss — was multi-millionaire Mr Woodman’s idea.
Mr Andrews put his name to the event and handed out a trophy as more than $400,000 was raised for the Monash Children’s Hospital.
The Premier’s attendance at the golf day also came after he had become aware that Mr Woodman was working as a property lobbyist for alleged mafia figure Tony Madafferi. At the time, Mr Andrews and his colleagues were attacking the credibility of then-Liberal leader Matthew Guy over his “lobster with a mobster” dinner in Melbourne’s bayside with Mr Madafferi.
The golf day revelation has raised questions about the closeness of Mr Andrews’s relationship with Mr Woodman, who is at the centre of an ongoing Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission inquiry into planning corruption.
IBAC has heard Mr Woodman donated almost $160,000 to Labor candidates at last year’s state election.
The Premier’s office also confirmed on Tuesday night that the Flower Drum lunch in September 2017 was one of three functions Mr Andrews attended at the restaurant with Mr Woodman.
“He has never raised active planning matters with me — if he had I would have stood up and left,” Mr Andrews said. “We discussed, principally, a charity golf day that he was very keen to put on.”
Mr Andrews added: “He had been very keen to run that golf day for quite some time.”
Asked if he knew Mr Woodman was representing Mr Madafferi at the time, Mr Andrews said he became aware “not long after that meeting” in September 2017, two months before the charity golf day.
“I have not been too concerned about his client list or those sorts of issues because of course, I have not been someone who has sat down and talked to him about active planning matters,” he said.
Mr Andrews said he had never met with Mr Madafferi — who has previously strenuously denied being a mafia figure and has never been charged with an offence. But the Premier has conceded he visited Mr Madafferi’s fruit shop, located in his electorate in Melbourne’s southeast.
Opposition Leader Michael O’Brien said the Premier had not explained why he maintained contact with Mr Woodman, even after his associations were made public.
“Daniel Andrews needs to explain why he was having dumplings with a developer who was acting for an alleged mafia boss,” he said.
Mr Andrews said the $2500 donation in 2002 was properly disclosed by Labor, along with others to MPs including a donation to Deputy Premier James Merlino before the 2018 election.
He said his government had strengthened political donation laws and would consider separate reforms for donations to local councillors after the IBAC probe ends.
The inquiry heard on Tuesday that Casey councillor Geoff Ablett — accused of receiving $330,000 from Mr Woodman — promoted the developer’s interests in conversations with councillors — despite the former mayor saying on Monday that doing so “would be corrupt”. Texts showed that, while declaring a conflict of interest, Cr Ablett “coached” Cr Sam Aziz on how to handle a 2018 vote on a Cranbourne intersection the tycoon had an interest in.
Commissioner Robert Redlich described the exchange as “the most flagrant abuse of the conflict situation that you were in”.
WHY WOODMAN IS NOW HOT PROPERTY
A suburban Subway, a Dandenong Chinese restaurant and a Casey function centre — these are the places where multi-millionaire developer John Woodman allegedly did his wheeling and dealing.
An anti-corruption probe has heard that Mr Woodman splashed hundreds of thousands of dollars in political donations as he built his empire.
The Ferrari-driving developer at the centre of a corruption scandal first rose to prominence in the 1990s when he bought the well-established Watsons Pty Ltd on the Mornington Peninsula.
He expanded his business by pushing ahead with contentious residential projects, including the $650 million Martha Cove marina project at Safety Beach.
Locals raised concerns about the peninsula development in 2002 but the company director won out despite backing down on initial plans for a 5ha public park.
He stared down more than 80 objectors at a council meeting and fought back against each of their concerns in a lengthy session.
Secret recordings of explosive phone calls, played to IBAC, reveal that Mr Woodman allegedly arranged for Aboriginal leaders to be paid off to turn a blind eye to heritage claims on development sites.
It was the price of getting them to “go away” he told the commission, and on one site came at a cost of $800 a day.
Mr Woodman’s fingerprints are found on major developments across Melbourne, from Little River and Wyndham Harbour in the city’s west to a push to rezone a Keysborough property owned by alleged mafia boss, Tony Madafferi, who has denied any crime links.
But it is a series of projects in Casey — a booming area on Melbourne’s southeast fringe — where Mr Woodman’s dealings have come under greatest scrutiny. Three key projects, including the proposed rezoning of industrial land in Cranbourne West, are being investigated by IBAC.
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Mounting evidence presented to the commission has suggested that Mr Woodman was not afraid to splash cash to further his business interests.
When it came to bankrolling the campaign of a bloc of Casey Council candidates in 2016, the commission heard Mr Woodman was a “bottomless pit”.
He and his associated entities also donated $94,500 to Labor before the 2014 state election, and a whopping $157,900 last year. In comparison, about $140,000 was tipped into Liberal coffers across the two campaigns.
Under Mr Woodman’s watch, it appears business has boomed.
Watson’s estimates it now produces as much as a fifth of the total housing lots released to Victoria’s booming population every year.