Crown casino’s harbour view on radar of lobbyist

Karl Bitar has acknowledged he pressured the boss of Infrastructure NSW to tear up the agency’s deal with a rival project in order to preserve the Sydney Harbour views of Crown casino’s Barangaroo tower.

Crown Towers in SWydney’s Barangaroo. Picture: NCA NewsWire/ Damian Shaw

Former NSW Labor power­broker and Crown casino lobbyist Karl Bitar has acknowledged he pressured the boss of Infrastructure NSW to tear up the agency’s deal with a rival project in order to preserve the Sydney Harbour views from the casino’s Barangaroo tower.

The role of the one-time Labor heavyweight in the $6bn Barangaroo development is being probed by a NSW parliamentary inquiry amid criticism that the precinct has become a planning “wild west”.

The long-running dispute is over building heights which impact sight lines that provide unobstructed views of the Sydney Opera House and the Harbour Bridge from the developments.

A series of messy legal battles over the foreshore’s development has engulfed Crown Resorts, construction giants Grocon and Lendlease and the NSW government.

Mr Bitar, the former right hand man to then gambling tycoon James Packer, told the inquiry on Tuesday that he leant on Infrastructure NSW executive director Tim Robertson to abandon the agency’s deal with Grocon to develop part of ­Central Barangaroo in order to preserve Crown Tower’s uninterrupted view.

“Towards the end of that process, when it looked like we weren’t going to find a resolution, I did encourage people at the (Barangaroo Delivery Authority) BDA to compromise,” Mr Bitar told the inquiry.

“I had a number of discussions with (Tim Robertson) and meetings with him, where I just urged him to compromise as much as possible to try to find a solution before this went legals.”

Mr Bitar attempted to have INSW redraw the development envelopes of Grocon proposed project in Central Barangaroo, which had been expanded after former NSW premier Mike Baird announced the precinct would have a metro station.

Crown has accused the NSW government of selling the sightlines twice, first to itself and then to Grocon, with the gambling giant winning a settlement in 2019.

Grocon is also locked in an ongoing legal dispute with INSW, alleging Lendlease and Crown reached a secret deal with the NSW government on building heights last year, scuppering the construction company’s project and allegedly leading to its fall into administration.

Mr Bitar was Labor national secretary for three years before leaving in 2011 to lobby for Crown Resorts under his firm Strategic Advice Australia, joining Crown a year later to manage the company’s corporate affairs.

He left the troubled gaming giant earlier this year to start his own advisory firm, his LinkedIn profile shows.

Mr Bitar said Crown was keen to preserve the sight lines, given that the ­gaming company was investing $2bn in the precinct.

Sydney MP Alex Greenwich, who also gave evidence at the hearing, said the development of Barangaroo had been characterised by “backroom deals” and “justifications for over development”, adding: “It is essentially the wild west of planning.”

The Select Committee on Barangaroo Sight Lines will sit again on November 11.