Email to Leighton executive lifts lid to IBAC probe
An inquiry into development decisions at Casey Council has heard Ferrari-driving developer John Woodman told Leighton Properties the Labor Party had agreed to rezone its Cranbourne West industrial land as long as the council approved the change.
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Ferrari-driving developer John Woodman told Leighton Properties the Labor Party had agreed to rezone its Cranbourne West industrial land as long as Casey Council approved the change.
The revelation was contained in an email Mr Woodman wrote to Thomas Kenessey, the Leighton executive in charge of the controversial proposed rezoning which is at the centre of the Casey Council IBAC hearings.
Mr Kenessey faced questions on Tuesday about what he and Leighton knew about Mr Woodman’s relationship with the now-sacked Casey Council, telling IBAC he did not believe the company had behaved improperly.
“We didn’t expect him to grease the wheels,” he said.
Mr Kenessey said that although he had attended numerous fundraisers involving politicians and councillors from the Casey area, including one at Crown casino fronted by former prime minister Tony Abbott, he had attended them as a guest of Mr Woodman and had not paid himself.
He was also quizzed about the 2015 email on Tuesday which showed former Labor MP Judith Graley was being kept in the loop by Mr Woodman about the rezoning.
IBAC also heard Ms Graley and another former Labor MP Jude Perera both lobbied Planning Minister Richard Wynne in favour of Leighton’s bid to rezone the land and that both had received donations from Mr Woodman at the time he was working as a consultant at the company.
In the email Mr Woodman said the need to “report up the line” to Ms Graley on how Casey was progressing, describing her as “our good friend” and reminding him “the Labor Party agreed that subject to Council supporting the translation from employment to residential” Labor would also support it.
Mr Kenessey told the hearing that almost $70,000 of the $818,000 Leighton paid to lawyer Megan Schutz had been used to create a “grassroots” local activist organisation called Save Cranbourne West Resident Action Group.
The group circulated petitions drafted by the Leighton interests that were then presented to parliament by Mr Perera.
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