WA Labor donor wins $100m contract

The property developer selected by the WA government to build a $100m film studio in Fremantle is also a major donor to the Labor Party.

WA Premier Mark McGowan. Picture: Colin Murty

The property developer selected by the West Australian government to build a $100m film studio in Fremantle is also a major donor to the Labor Party, prompting a broadside from Opposition ­Leader Zak Kirkup.

Hesperia Projects, owned by property developers Adrian Fini and Ben Lisle, donated just over $50,000 to the WA arm of the Labor Party last year in what was its only gift to any political party. The Hesperia-led consortium Home Fire Creative Industries was at the weekend named as the preferred proponent to develop the studio at Fremantle’s Victoria Quay.

Mr Kirkup savaged the McGowan government over its relationships with corporate donors, comparing it to the WA Inc era of the 1980s. “There is absolutely an issue with the Labor Party and how it deals with special interests who oddly enough also donate to them,” he said. “The Labor Party has form when it comes to making sure that they look after those donors in a particular way.

“We’ve seen it with WA Inc, we’re seeing it now with one of the most secretive and unaccountable governments in the history of Western Australia. That’s a top-down issue we need to address.”

The influence of property ­developers on WA politics has become prominent over the course of the state election campaign.

Billionaire property developer and Liberal Party member Nigel Satterley has been a savage critic of the Liberals and Mr Kirkup, and has organised a $1500 a plate dinner expected to raise about $300,000 for the Labor Party.

Mr Satterley renewed his attack on the Liberal Party on Monday, citing the party’s disastrous results in the latest Newspoll published by The Australian at the weekend. He again called for the party’s influential conservative powerbrokers, Peter Collier and Nick Goiran, to be sacked and said the party was “a real embarrassment to WA”.

While donations from property developers are banned in NSW and Queensland, there are no such restrictions in WA.

Mr Kirkup said while he did not support banning any Australians from donating to political parties, voters should wonder what Mr Satterley would expect from Labor in return for his ­support.

“This is a Labor Party that is taking money from everyone it can, making decisions that benefit special vested interests, isn’t ­accountable, is incredibly secretive and not only that, has a grand design to seize total control of the Western Australian parliament and doesn’t want to see checks and balances,” he said.

“I suspect it’s because they want to continue with their ­history of being unethical and ­corrupt in the future.”

Mr McGowan defended the circumstances behind the film studio deal, noting that the process had been managed independently by the Department of Finance.

“They assessed various applicants and they came up with Home Fire Studios, independent of government,” he said.

“People can run conspiracy theories but we are actually putting in place a new industry that’s been talked about for decades that will benefit our state immensely.”

Home Fires’ Howard Cearns said he had approached Hesperia and Mr Fini — a business partner of his for almost 20 years — to work on the project when it became clear the government was looking into developing a film studio. He said the consortium had been through a thorough tendering process. “I can see the perception here, but not the connection,” he said. “We are an independent outfit.”