Jason Wood’s staff member quits amid anti-corruption hearing
One of La Trobe MP Jason Wood’s staffers, who is alleged to have overseen an almost-$100,000 Casey Council election campaign funded by John Woodman, has sensationally resigned.
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The explosive anti-corruption commission hearing into Casey Council has spread to federal politics, with the resignation of a Liberal MP’s staff member on Thursday.
Janet Halsall, who had been working for La Trobe MP Jason Wood until she quit on Thursday, was alleged to have overseen an almost-$100,000 Casey Council election campaign bankrolled by a developer.
Under a “covert” scheme allegedly devised by Casey councillor and former mayor Sam Aziz, a “group” of election candidates had its funding bankrolled by Ferrari-driving developer John Woodman.
The Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission hearing was told that a budget, uncovered during raids, tallied the campaign’s costs at more than $98,000.
Ms Halsall, who is also former mayor of Casey Council, is understood to deny any wrongdoing.
Among other documents found in IBAC raids was a $4000 invoice from The Mattress Shop linked to Ms Halsall’s family, written out to Spicer Thoroughbreds.
Counsel assisting the commission, Michael Tovey QC, quizzed former state Liberal MP Lorraine Wreford, who had been working as a lobbyist for Mr Woodman, on whether false invoices were issued to hide election campaign funding.
She said it “looks like you are correct” when shown the invoices.
GEOFF ABLETT FRONTS COMMISSION
Casey councillor and former Hawthorn footballer Geoff Ablett also fronted the commission on Thursday, and was quizzed about racehorses he co-owned with Mr Woodman.
The commission heard that Mr Woodman approached hobby trainer Cr Ablett about his family buying into a racehorse shortly before a “significant” council vote on Woodman-linked project, Brompton Lodge, in 2010.
The pair did not previously know each other.
“It is a coincidence,” Cr Ablett said.
The commission also heard that Cr Ablett was paid tens of thousands of dollars a year to care for horses, including one, Prima Facie that did not race.
Asked why Mr Woodman would pay him to care for a horse that wasn’t racing, he said: “Because he wanted to breed from her.”
“He is very passionate about horses,” he said.
Cr Ablett, who has previously denied he was corrupt, also revealed that in July he bought a filly on Mr Woodman’s behalf.
He said he was given a $20,000 budget but that the two-year-old unnamed filly only cost $5000.
He said that Mr Woodman paid for the horse but that he was given a half-share to “look after it”.
Counsel assisting the commission, Michael Tovey QC, then questioned: “so he paid for it and you got 50 per cent?”
Cr Ablett responded: “Yes, and I’m to look after it morning, noon and night, which is about 40 hours a week I put in.
“I put in 35 to 40 hours a week with the horses grooming, feeding, fixing fences, all that sort of stuff.”
Cr Ablett will return to IBAC to continue giving evidence on Monday.
LOBBYIST FELT ‘TRAPPED’ BETWEEN WOODMAN, AZIZ
A tearful former Liberal MP has claimed she struggled to get a job after being dumped from state parliament and “felt trapped” in an alleged deal between a multi-millionaire developer and Casey councillor.
Political lobbyist Lorraine Wreford told IBAC that she was stuck between developer John Woodman and councillor Sam Aziz and did not know “how to get out”.
She is accused of ferrying tens of thousands of dollars stuffed in envelopes from the developer to the besieged former mayor.
She told the commission that she was not aware how much cash was in the deliveries — codenamed “the suitcase” or “the package” — and initially believed they were legitimate loan repayments.
She later realised they amounted to a bribe for favourable planning decisions, she conceded yesterday.
The commission heard this morning that a $30,000 tax bill was paid on Cr Aziz’s behalf, and that Ms Wreford forwarded him the ATO receipt.
She said she “would have liked at this point in time to know how to get out of the whole thing”.
“But I didn’t know how to,” she said.
“I just felt myself trapped in the middle between these two people. That’s how I felt.”
Quizzed by Commissioner Robert Redlich on why she did not question further the dealings between Mr Woodman and Cr Aziz, she said: “I should have.”
“Hindsight is a wonderful thing,” she said.
“I think my gut was telling me it wasn’t right but I think because I was in the employ … there’s many things that were happening.”
Ms Wreford became tearful, before saying that although her children were off her “hands”, she “still had a lot of financial obligations”.
“As I said to you yesterday, after being in parliament, I’m not the only parliamentarian that has trouble getting back into the workforce,” she said.
Ms Wreford told the commission yesterday that being dumped as the Member for Mordialloc in the 2014 state election was “like falling off a cliff”.
“When I had been in public life and representing (the) community for, you know, a total of 12 years in different roles it was really difficult,” she said.
“I took a break and had a holiday for a start, and then had to face the music and realised that I couldn’t afford to manage my mortgage because … I didn’t have a job.”
Ms Wreford said that she applied for jobs but discovered being a backbencher “doesn’t look good on your resume” and was forced to put her Parkdale home on the market.
LOBBYIST ACTED AS ‘FUNNEL’ FOR CAMPAIGN FUNDING
FERRARI-driving developer John Woodman allegedly bankrolled an almost $100,000 campaign for a “group” of candidates contesting the 2016 Casey Council elections.
The state’s anti-corruption watchdog heard that besieged former Casey mayor Sam Aziz first proposed the “covert” scheme in a meeting at a Chinese restaurant in Dandenong.
Documents seen by the commission allege that the group included councillors Aziz, Geoff Ablett, Amanda Stapledon, Damien Rosario and Wayne Smith.
But political consultant Lorraine Wreford said that that the scheme was “definitely designed that the candidates didn’t know where the money was coming from”.
A budget found during a raid on Ms Wreford’s home tallied the cost of portrait photography, mail outs, brochures and other campaign expenses at more than $98,000.
It was uncovered along with documents related to the 2016 council elections, including a $4000 invoice from a mattress shop connected to the campaign’s managers to racing company, Spicer Thoroughbreds.
The invoice from The Mattress Shop in Chelsea purported to be for an Astro Ensuite, Miami Mats and a headboard with delivery to be confirmed.
Ms Wreford was quizzed on whether false invoices were issued to hide the campaign funding, and said “that looks like you are correct”.
She told the commission that while she did not herself pay the invoice, she was a “funnel” through which they were paid.
She said that there was a funding agreement between Mr Aziz and Mr Woodman, although there wasn’t detailed “authorisation” of the amount.
“It didn’t seem like there was a lot of authorisation in terms of the amount, it just seemed like a bit of a bottomless pit,” she said.
In ticking off the invoices, Ms Wreford said she was “doing exactly as I was directed”.
Ms Wreford returned to the commission’s public hearings for a second day, after conceding during yesterday’s hearings that cash she delivered from Mr Woodman to Mr Aziz amounted to a bribe for favourable planning decisions.
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The Commission heard that Ms Wreford handed over monthly $15,000 payments, with one $40,000 drop.
She also delivered monthly bundles of $2000 cash.
In one covertly-recorded meeting between Ms Wreford and Mr Aziz, the councillor questioned how she was going to hand over the cash “without looking like a drug dealer”.
“I don’t know,” she said, before the pair left a cafe and carried out the cash exchange in a nearby car.