Sidoti took ‘unorthodox’ step to resume public ICAC inquiry

John Sidoti’s sister and brother-in-law helped prepare a statutory declaration on behalf of a Sydney businessman to dispute claims the Drummoyne MP gave false evidence in a corruption inquiry.

The document was drafted on behalf of former Five Dock Chamber of Commerce vice-president Glen Haron and included a declaration that evidence the MP gave was “not ‘made up’ as suggested” in an April hearing.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption resumed its inquiry into the former sports minister on Wednesday after Mr Sidoti took the “unorthodox” step of requesting the public examination of new material to support his earlier evidence.

John Sidoti arrives at the ICAC in Sydney earlier this year.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

Mr Sidoti is being investigated for misusing his position to improperly influence Liberal councillors to achieve outcomes that would benefit his family’s property interests in Five Dock between 2011 and 2018.

The inquiry has focused on Mr Sidoti’s lobbying to rezone blocks in the area where his parents owned property, despite experts finding it was not in the public interest.

The commission on Wednesday heard Mr Sidoti tendered a statutory declaration two weeks after the original inquiry ended on April 27, when he was accused by counsel assisting the commission Rob Ranken of giving false evidence.

Mr Sidoti that day relayed a recent conversation with Mr Haron regarding the MP’s involvement in arranging a 2014 meeting between Liberal City of Canada Bay councillors and representatives of the Chamber of Commerce.

“I was walking the dog and [Mr Haron] was driving past and he saw me and he pulled over, and he basically came out and said he saw what answers I gave,” Mr Sidoti said in April.

“He says, ‘You organised it and then you stayed in your own office and you didn’t come in’.”

Mr Ranken at the time suggested Mr Sidoti “made up that evidence of this conversation ... and that it is false evidence”.

Fronting the commission on Wednesday Mr Haron said Mr Sidoti had asked if his solicitor could contact him about the matter.

Mr Haron said he met once with a female solicitor and later dealt only with Mr Sidoti’s sister Lisa Andersen and her husband David, who is a lawyer, about providing a statement to the ICAC to support Mr Sidoti’s account.

The commission heard Mr Haron did not write the statement himself, rather Mr Andersen dropped a draft copy to his house for him to sign. Mr Haron said he signed the final copy in a Starbucks cafe in Haymarket and said he stood by the document, but noted some inaccuracies.

ICAC Chief Commissioner Peter Hall QC put it to Mr Haron that the statutory declaration was “not really your statement, [rather] it purports to be a record of your discussion with this female solicitor”.

When asked to read out handwritten notations on a copy of the declaration, Mr Haron was unable to decipher the script.

Mr Ranken suggested Mr Haron was unable to say if the entire document accorded with Mr Haron’s memory “because you don’t know what’s written”.

“No,” Mr Haron said.

Mr Ranken said it was important the inquiry resumed to consider the statutory declaration publicly because of the “unorthodox” way it was submitted. New evidence is usually introduced to the ICAC through counsel assisting, he said.

“Sidoti has requested the commission have regard to its contents as part of the evidence in a public hearing,” he said, adding that it may also “bear upon the commission’s assessment of Mr Sidoti’s credibility”.

Mr Haron will continue his evidence to the ICAC on Thursday. Mr Sidoti and his sister are also scheduled to appear this week.

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