Former Sutherland Shire Mayor Kent Johns vying for NSW upper house seat

A former mayor who helped a company with ties to the Communist Party of China is running for a NSW upper house seat.

A former Sydney mayor who helped a company with ties to the Communist Party of China by intervening in a local planning issue is running for a NSW upper house seat.

The company later bought a large enough stake in Sutherland Shire councillor and ex-mayor Kent Johns’ business to become its majority shareholder.

It can be revealed that Mr Johns is now vying to take over outgoing upper house president John Ajaka’s seat and will contest a preselection this Saturday.

Two senior Liberal Party sources said there were some people within the party who worried Mr Johns’ “baggage” could hurt the government if he were chosen for the seat.

While he hasn’t been accused of wrongdoing, one of the people said: “The thing with Kent Johns is, he just doesn’t pass the pub test.”

Mr Johns has declined to comment on this story.

Ex-Cronulla Shire Mayor Kent Johns will contest a preselection this Saturday to take over a NSW upper house seat.

As the mayor of the Shire in 2013, he pushed for a change in a local regulation by issuing a mayoral minute that specifically mentioned an address where property developer Hansen Investment Group Australia hoped to build apartments.

The council was in the process of drafting a new local environmental plan, and a rule about how close to the foreshore a building could be would have impacted HIGA’s plan of building a collection of 23 waterfront units in the suburb of Sylvania.

Among the recommendations in Mr Johns’ mayoral minute was for the rule to be relaxed in relation to the address where the HIGA development was planned.

Two years later, Mr Johns did an interview with the People’s Daily, a media outlet linked to the Communist Party of China.

Mr Johns told the reporter Wenqi Zhang about the Shire’s desire to strengthen its business and cultural ties with China.

The article did not disclose that Ms Zhang’s father, Minghai Zhang, was one of the founding directors of HIGA, which had an application related to the Sylvania project before the council at the time.

A still from a People's Daily video interview with former Sutherland Shire mayor and current councillor Kent Johns, on the right, that Wenqi Zhang shared on her LinkedIn page. Picture by People's Daily via NCA NewsWire

That application was filed through the company Q.Y. & Hansen, which Mr Zhang directed, ASIC and council records show.

Nearly two years after the interview, in June 2017, Ms Zhang became a director of Mr Johns’ company JHC Infrastructure Pty Ltd.

That was the same day that another company run by the Zhang family, Hansen Investment Corp, bought 38 per cent of JHC shares, enough to become the majority shareholder.

The Sylvania project was completed in 2018, and by that time at least one unit had already sold for over $1.4 million.

Ms Zhang took over as managing director of HIGA earlier this year.

The Sylvania units were under construction in this July 2016 image. Picture by Google Maps via NCA NewsWire

In a disclosures of interest form handed into Sutherland Shire Council last year by Mr Johns, he did not reveal that HIGA was the majority shareholder in his company.

He answered “no” to a question on the form about whether he was a close associate of a person or corporation that is a property developer.

Mr Johns, who declined to comment for this story, has previously said he didn’t need to declare that business relationship.

Ms Zhang did not reply to a request for comment.

Mr Johns’ rivals for the upper house seat are understood to include Peter Poulos, advisor to Environment Minister Matt Kean; Sam Elmir, Georges River councillor; and cardiologist Dr Fred Nasser.

Mr Johns and Mr Poulos are seen as likely frontrunners and are both considered part of the party’s moderate faction.

The preselection will be decided by a little over a hundred Liberal Party members and whoever wins will take the seat without facing voters until 2023.