The pristine beach, a $100m development proposal and the question over links to Obeid family

Corrupt former Labor minister Eddie Obeid stepped out of Long Bay Correctional Complex on Wednesday morning, reigniting recent questions in state parliament about his family’s links to a controversial block of land in Hawks Nest earmarked as a state significant development.

The prized 1.5-hectare block on an undeveloped stretch of beach on the state’s Mid North Coast was fast-tracked for approval by the government’s new planning authority early this year to make way for a luxury $100 million complex with two pools and 104 apartments.

The view from what would be level 4 of the Hawks Nest Beachside development once the luxury complex is completed.Credit: Hawks Nest Beachside

The property has been at the centre of controversy since 2016 when the Karuah Local Aboriginal Land Council sold it for $600,000 to two companies, one of which is led by a close associate of the Obeid family.

The sale settled to corporate entities Leric Group and Core Property Developments in 2018, and was rezoned in 2021 from public recreation to medium-density residential, significantly increasing its development potential and sparking local objections that it would open up the pristine beachfront to more projects.

The opposition’s planning spokesman, Scott Farlow, raised the prospect that the Obeid family were financially or professionally connected to the Sanderling Avenue development in May when he put questions on notice to Premier Chris Minns and Planning Minister Paul Scully.

“Will you confirm whether any close associates, consultants or known proxies of the Obeid family are financially or professionally connected to the Sanderling Avenue development in Hawks Nest, which the government has declared as a state significant development?” asked Farlow.

Corrupt former Labor MP Eddie Obeid pictured as he left Long Bay jail in the rain on Wednesday morning. Credit: Sam Mooy

It’s a pertinent question given Obeid on Wednesday was released from jail after serving his sentence of three years and 10 months for misconduct in public office in relation to the grant of a coal exploration licence, which delivered a $30 million windfall to his family.

Obeid, once a key powerbroker within the Labor Party, has featured in seven corruption inquiries ranging from cafes, coal, healthcare and water licences, a string of which found Obeid was corrupt.

Included in those was the 2013 finding by the Independent Commission Against Corruption that Obeid, his son Moses Obeid and Obeid’s former Labor colleague Ian Macdonald, and others, engaged in corrupt conduct in relation to their actions involving the Mount Penny coal mining tenement over their farm Cherrydale Park in the Bylong Valley.

Minns deferred the questions to Scully, who responded by saying the Housing Delivery Authority’s recommendations for state significant development do not require disclosure of an applicant’s links to specific individuals or entities, including financial arrangements.

“Any investigations into undisclosed interests or potential improper conduct rests within the jurisdiction of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), not the HDA.”

Claims that the Obeids are behind the development were denied by Bob Lander, of development consultancy Tattersall Lander, which is spearheading the project’s approval process.

The Hawks Nest Beachside development is set on 1.5 hectares between Hawks Nest Golf Club and Bennetts Beach.Credit: Hawks Nest Beachside

Lander said he tightly controls who he works with and ensures they are real people and not a front for anyone else. “I don’t have anything to do with the Obeids.”

But, Lander said, “they have something to do with others who might be related as directors of other companies.”

Lander was referring to Sydney-based tiler Merwen “Memo” Ibrahim, who is the sole director and owner of one of the corporate entities behind the development, Leric Group, and a long-time friend of Eddie Obeid’s son, Gerard Obeid.

Gerard is just one of nine Obeid family members being pursued by the ATO over their alleged failure to pay tax on the $30 million they received from Eddie Obeid’s snr’s corrupt coal licence deal.

The other part owner is Core Property Developments, fronted by Port Macquarie-based Luke Goodwin, who has no known connection to the Obeids.

Goodwin, who owns three Hog’s Breath Cafes and steakhouses in Penrith and Queensland, declined to comment on the project, but said this year its ownership was a matter of public record: Core Property and Leric Group.

Ibrahim was yet to respond to calls before publication, but is well documented as a close Obeid family associate and is tied to the Obeid family’s corporate interests. He has never been accused of corruption or any involvement in Eddie Obeid’s offending.

Among the Burwood Heights-based tiler’s interests is Pacific Drive Pty Ltd, the company owner of a block of land opposite the oceanfront Windmill Hill Reserve at Port Macquarie, where development approval has been granted for 44 apartments next door to Gerard Obeid’s home.

The Pacific Drive development, called Tide, is being spearheaded by Laurus Projects, headed by another Obeid family associate, Brian Hood.

Hood, who has also not been accused of involvement in corruption, is also yet to respond to texts, but was previously linked to the Obeids through another luxury development at Lake Cathie, south of Port Macquarie.

That development is known as Catarina Beachfront Estate, owned by the Obeid family’s Catarina Village Pty Ltd and another holding company CRB 167 Pty Ltd.

Stage one is a $20.4 million development of 41 apartments that was approved in August last year.

Three months after that approval was granted, there was a reshuffle of CRB 167 Pty Ltd to install three new directors: Gerard, Paul and Eddie Obeid jnr. It is now owned by Paul and Edward Obeid.

The Lake Cathie site has been part of the Obeid family’s extensive property portfolio since 1988 when it was part of a much larger 16-hectare parcel obtained by the family from corrupt former Strathfield mayor John Abi-Saab.

Approval to redevelop the pristine waterfront land occurred in 2013 when Obeid snr was being investigated over the Mount Penny coalmining tenement at Cherrydale Park.

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