ICAC: NSW MP John Sidoti’s ‘memory blanks’ queried

John Sidoti gave a Liberal councillor a ‘script’ with ‘key reasons’ to support proposed rezoning changes, ICAC has heard.

NSW MP John Sidoti. Picture: Christian Gilles

With a looming council meeting offering former Berejiklian government minister John Sidoti his “last chance” to try to have his family’s property included in rezoning plans, the Drummoyne MP gave a Liberal councillor a script with “key reasons” to support the proposed changes, ICAC has heard.

At the Independent Commission Against Corruption, Mr Sidoti’s faulty memory was also called into question by Commissioner Peter Hall QC, who asked whether he had an illness or virus that could help explain his memory blanks.

The lead-up to a critical City of Canada Bay council meeting on October 20, 2015, was under the microscope at the corruption hearing on Thursday.

Emails tendered as evidence showed Mr Sidoti pressuring Liberal councillor Tanveer Ahmed after he told him he would be unable to attend. “Mate without you I’m f..cked. We won’t have the numbers,” Mr Sidoti wrote to him on October 15.

After his repeated efforts to persuade the council to extend mixed-use zoning to include his family’s property in the Five Dock Town Centre’s rezoning plan, counsel assisting the commissioner, Rob Ranken, suggested the council meeting was Mr Sidoti’s final opportunity to extend the Five Dock Town Centre’s rezoning plan to include his family’s property.

“What I’m suggesting … is what you wanted to get past the council at that meeting would not have been successfully passed if Dr Ahmed would not have been at the meeting because you would not have had the numbers?” Mr Ranken said.

The former sports minister denied applying pressure to Liberal councillors for his personal gain, saying his primary concern was to ensure he didn’t look like an “absolute pork chop” to constituents in favour of the extended rezoning.

ICAC is examining whether in 2011-18, Mr Sidoti tried to pressure Liberal members of the council to extend a rezoning proposal to include four properties in Five Dock held by his family’s self-managed super fund.

In a tense day, Mr Sidoti earned the ire of Mr Hall for repeatedly trying to avoid answering questions. “Do you tend to find your memory is not good? Or is it explained by some personal circumstances … some times people contract an illness or a virus and it can affect the memory?” Mr Hall asked.

“Yes,” he said. “Workload.”