‘Daniel Andrews wanted to apologise to developer’, phone taps reveal

Phone taps referenced in the Operation Sandon draft report reveal fresh details of Premier’s association with developer.

Property developer John Woodman. Picture: Aaron Francis

A Labor-aligned lobbyist told John Woodman that he had a discussion with Daniel Andrews during which the Premier asked him to apologise to the millionaire property developer after his government rejected a rezoning application.

An intercepted 2019 phone call, according to a draft copy of IBAC’s Operation Sandon report, between lobbyist Philip Staindl and Mr Woodman recorded the pair discussing a failed bid to rezone a chunk of industrial land.

Mr Staindl tells Mr Woodman that during an earlier discussion he had with Mr Andrews, the Premier had, according to the draft report, “praised Mr Woodman’s contribution to the Labor Party and lamented the fact Mr Woodman was being pursued with allegations of corruption by a journalist”.

The association between Mr Woodman and Mr Andrews featured in the draft Operation Sandon report and is expected to be referenced in the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Com­­mission’s final report set to be tabled in parliament on Thursday.

The anti-corruption agency’s five-year investigation into allegedly corrupt land deals focused on Mr Woodman and several councillors in the city of Casey, but Mr Andrews was dragged into the scandal through his decades-old association with the property ­developer.

Mr Andrews, as revealed by The Australian in May 2022, was grilled by IBAC in secret during Operation Sandon over his dealings with Mr Woodman. The draft report states that in the intercepted phone call on March 4, 2019, Mr Staindl recalled the conversation he had with Mr Andrews at a function earlier that month.

“Staindl said the Premier asked him to apologise to Mr Woodman for the minister’s deferral of his decision on amendment C219 because of those allegations,” the draft report states. “The allegations referred to were those made in The Age newspaper in late 2018.

“Staindl told Mr Woodman he had provided the Premier with Mr Woodman’s phone number as the Premier said he would like to call Mr Woodman.”

Mr Staindl, according to the draft report, told IBAC his report to Mr Woodman of his conversation with the Premier was accurate but “qualified this later in his evidence suggesting there was some hyperbole and exaggeration ... he nevertheless maintained the ‘thrust’ of his account was correct”.

The draft report states that under cross-examination, “it was suggested to Mr Staindl that the Premier’s response was apparently engendered by a sense of obligation arising from Mr Woodman’s contributions to the Labor Party and Mr Woodman’s personal interactions with the Premier”.

“Mr Staindl said ‘In this particular case with Mr Woodman, the donations he made certainly assisted him in gaining access entrees to ministers and members of parliament and that is probably come to benefit him, yes’,” the draft report says.

Mr Andrews, according to the draft report, told IBAC during his evidence he had known Mr Staindl for 20 years and he knew him to be a supporter of the ALP­­  and a supporter of his.

“Mr Andrews said he knew Mr Woodman and was aware he had made substantial donations to the party,” the draft report states.

“He accepted it was possible he had acknowledged Mr Woodman’s donations to the ALP when speaking with Mr Staindl.

“Mr Andrews accepted that he would not have had any interest in alienating Mr Woodman as a donor to the ALP.”

The Premier told IBAC, according to the draft report, he had little knowledge of the planning issue “but he may have learned that any such decision on the rezoning may have been deferred”.

“He said while it was not his practice to instruct the planning minister as to how to administer his portfolio, he was uncertain as to whether he may have given some instruction that in light of The Age article, it would not be an appropriate time for a decision to be made on C219.

“But he considered it highly unlikely that he would have wanted to have Mr Staindl convey an ­apology for the decision being ­deferred.”

Operation Sandon was rocked by controversy when former Casey mayor Amanda Stapledon took her life in January 2022 three days after receiving the draft copy of IBAC’s report.

The 58-year-old had been grilled in public by IBAC and, ­according to her friends, had been ­traumatised by the experience.