By Royce Millar, Ben Schneiders and Nick McKenzie
A Melbourne businessman police allege is a Mafia boss teamed up with one of the state's most influential lobbyists and political donors in a bid to redevelop "green wedge" land in the city's south-east, a move that came close to netting them a windfall of at least $120 million.
Antonio Madafferi, a major property owner in Keysborough, was a key figure in the lobster dinner and political donations affair involving Opposition Leader Matthew Guy in April.
Antonio Madafferi is a a wealthy grocer and part owner of the La Porchetta pizza chain.Credit: Jason South
Mr Madafferi's consultant in the push to convert green wedge land into residential housing is John Woodman, a Porsche-driving development expert and fundraiser for both major parties, renowned for his ability to win unlikely planning approvals on Melbourne's urban fringe.
Their campaign, in parallel with a group of other major landholders in Keysborough, is the latest play in the decades-old battle that has seen half of the semi-rural green wedge land set aside by the Hamer government in the 1970s as Melbourne's "lungs" whittled away.
Half of the semi-rural green wedge land set aside by the Hamer government in the 1970s as Melbourne's "lungs" has been whittled away.
While this latest carve-up bid was ultimately blocked by Planning Minister Richard Wynne, even though Greater Dandenong Council supported the landowners, the green wedge developers have not been deterred.
Theirs is a long game, sustained over years by speculation, the prospect of an overnight fortune made from the stroke of a minister's pen, political donations and deals done under both Labor and Coalition governments
The Sunday Age does not suggest that pressing for rezonings or making donations to political parties is illegal.
However, the kind of property/developer-related donations so prevalent in Victoria, and especially Melbourne's south-east, are illegal in NSW.
Opposition Leader Matthew Guy attended a lobster dinner in April where Mr Madafferi was present.Credit: AAP
News of the green wedge push comes as the Andrews government looks to overhaul donation laws that are among the most lax in the Western world. The Age's revelation last month about the Lobster Cave dinner affair are understood to have bolstered the argument for change within the Andrews cabinet.
Currently, unlike other states, Victoria has no effective campaign funding laws other than a $50,000 cap on donations from gambling licensees. Under federal electoral laws – also famously weak – there is no cap on donations but all those over $13,500 are supposed to be declared.
Mr Madafferi's cousin Frank Lamattina.Credit: Gary Sissons
At local government level, campaign gifts of $500 or more have to be disclosed.
Mr Madafferi, a wealthy grocer and part owner of the La Porchetta pizza chain, owns about 60 hectares of land in Keysborough, much of it zoned green wedge. He has recently sought through one of his companies, Madan Nominees, to be permitted to carve up his land into large residential lots, a proposal that experts say could be worth at least $120 million.
Planning Minister Richard Wynne has blocked the attempt to carve up the Keysborough land. Credit: Jesse Marlow
Mr Woodman, Madan's consultant, has in recent years been one of the Liberal Party's biggest individual backers and is renowned for his use of donations to open political doors.
As director of the Mornington-based Watsons Consulting, Mr Woodman prides himself on getting results for developers, especially in the south-east. In 2016 his website boasted of his record of "successfully rezoning large tracts of farmland and land within green wedges for residential, commercial and industrial developments".
Mr Madafferi has established political connections by donating to Liberal politicians and attending party functions in Melbourne's south-east with his cousin, market gardener Frank Lamattina, a Liberal stalwart also present at the lobster dinner with Mr Guy in April. The Sunday Age understands Mr Madafferi has at times also contributed to the ALP, although there are no public records of such donations.
Exactly when Mr Madafferi first hired Mr Woodman is unclear. Mr Woodman did not return repeated calls. Mr Madafferi told The Sunday Age he did not want to comment.
Last year Mr Madafferi and the Keysborough South Landowners Group seized on a Greater Dandenong Council review of green wedge management – which was intended to strengthen protection of the green wedge – to press for the right to subdivide their properties into 0.2-hectare blocks. Current land holdings in the Greater Dandenong green wedge must be at least six hectares.
Mr Madafferi spent about $3 million amassing 60 hectares of land in Keysborough in the 1990s and 2000s. Property experts estimate the proposed subdivision would add a conservative $120 million, but possibly much more, to the value of his land.
In mid-2016 Dandenong council voted 9-2 to support the landowners' push for residential development despite the move being contrary to council and state government planning policies, and the advice of the council's own planning officers.
The decision would have generated billions of dollars in a value uplift to landowners.
Dandenong mayor Jim Memeti, who supports the carve-up, has confirmed Mr Madafferi was present at the meeting when the council voted.
At least one councillor confided to colleagues that they supported the motion because they were frightened of Mr Madafferi, who has been accused by police in several court cases of being a powerful organised crime figure. Mr Madafferi has never been charged with a crime and strenuously denies wrongdoing or connections to organised crime.
The council's register of campaign donations shows that three months after the council vote, Mr Madafferi's consultant Mr Woodman donated a helicopter ride for four people to Cr Memeti. The councillor auctioned the chopper ride at a fundraiser for $3500 ahead of the council election in October 2016.
But by the end of 2016, it became clear the Keysborough subdivision campaign was in trouble despite the council's favourable vote. A state-appointed planning panel had recommended against it and the signs were that Planning Minister Richard Wynne would accept the panel's recommendations, which he did formally in August.
Mr Wynne, however, is viewed by the developer lobby as a temporary obstacle.
"There are strong planning arguments that this land is not really rural in nature and could be better utilised," said Frank Perry, a veteran planning consultant who represents the Keysborough landholder group.
"It's a matter that any Victorian government [Labor or Coalition] should look at."
A priority for some of the landholders now appears to be the election of a Coalition government in 2018.
Mr Madafferi dined at the Lobster Cave restaurant in Beaumaris with the prospective alternative premier, Mr Guy, in April. There is no evidence that green wedge planning policy was discussed over the lobster and Grange.
But leaked phone conversation recordings of the Liberal fundraiser who organised the dinner suggest the event was a catalyst for Mr Madafferi and his relatives seeking to financially support Mr Guy's tilt at power.
"They [Mr Madafferi and Mr Lamattina] want Matthew Guy to be the next premier," dinner organiser Barry MacMillan, a well-known Liberal in the south-east, said on the recordings.
The recordings reveal Mr MacMillan's estimate that the dinner could lead to tens of thousands of dollars in contributions to Mr Guy's election campaign.
Mr Guy has not responded to questions from The Age, including about whether green wedge planning was discussed at the dinner.
However a spokesman stressed that as planning minister in the Baillieu/Napthine government Mr Guy made no changes to green wedge boundaries in Keysborough.
"However, government records show that Mr Lamattina's farmland at Clyde was brought into the urban growth boundary in 2010 by the Brumby Labor government," said the spokesman. "Daniel Andrews was in cabinet when that decision was made; perhaps he can offer some insight behind that decision."
When some locals familiar with property and planning battles in Keysborough heard about the lobster dinner and promised donations, they were concerned the Dandenong green wedge battle would again flare up.
"Believe me, the challenge to the green wedge is not over," said Greens councillor and Keysborough local Matthew Kirwan. "As long as developers can think 'it will only take a few more years more', they will keep pushing."
Cr Jim Memeti said he knew Mr Madafferi but had never had a "one-on-one" meeting with him.
He said he had met Mr Woodman a few times but had not discussed the proposed Keysborough subdivision. Cr Memeti said he did not know why he had been offered the donation of a chopper ride.
He said he supported development to improve the area and create jobs. He said the green wedge areas in Dandenong were in poor condition and looked "shocking".
Mr Madafferi has never been convicted of a crime but has been repeatedly accused by police of being a high-ranking member of Melbourne's Mafia, which has led to him being banned from Crown casino and Victorian racetracks.
In an affidavit filed in court in June to support the ban, Detective Superintendent Peter Brigham said Mr Madafferi had "substantial and close involvement with serious criminal conduct including drug importation, murder and extortion".
Detective Superintendent Brigham said Mr Madafferi was a "known associate of prominent criminal entities and persons who have a history of significant criminal conduct that includes money laundering and drug trafficking".
Mr Madafferi has repeatedly denied such claims and is challenging the casino ban.
Mr Woodman's client list is a who's who of Melbourne, including the Fox, Myer, Ansett, Baillieu-Myer and, now, Madafferi families.
Donations have always been an important part of his armory. In 2014-2015 he contributed at least $80,000 to Liberal state coffers.
Liberal Party records obtained by the Victorian Ombudsman and noted in a 2015 report, show that the bulk of Mr Woodman's donations were earmarked for state candidates Geoff Ablett and Amanda Stapledon, both of whom were councillors in Casey in the south-east, where Mr Woodman has many development projects.
Mr Ablett, who was also at the Lobster Cave dinner, has supported major projects involving Mr Woodman.
As well as cash, Mr Woodman in 2014-2015 donated chopper rides to be auctioned at fundraisers for Mr Ablett and Ms Stapledon. It is unclear if the chopper gifts have been declared.
Leaked Liberal documents also show that Mr Woodman and associates attended an intimate Liberal fundraiser with then planning minister Mr Guy at Kelly's pub in Cranbourne on October 2014, shortly before the state election.
They include an email in which senior party figure Simon Frost notes Mr Woodman would be able to "target" donors to invite to the dinner.
In November 2015, Victorian Ombudsman Deborah Glass reported on her inquiry into whistleblower complaints about donations to Mr Ablett and Ms Stapledon. In her report, Ms Glass slammed a lack of transparency around donations and called for reform before the next state election, including possible restrictions on donations from property developers.
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