Former Labor premier turned lobbyist Morris Iemma was petitioning senior staffers in the Minns government on behalf of major property developers around the same time as he was offering personal advice to Planning Minister Paul Scully about planning laws.

In April 2024, Iemma, a registered lobbyist whose firm Iemma Patterson Premier Advisory (IPPA) has gone from strength to strength since Labor won office in 2022, sought a meeting with Scully to provide personal advice about “the way forward” after the government abolished the Greater Sydney Commission.

In the same month, he was firing off emails seeking an “urgent” meeting about a Landmark Group development in Edgecliff, asking for “direction” from the government over a project in The Hills and seeking “feedback and guidance” on behalf of Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group over land near Kiama.

He also asked for – and received – a meeting with planning officials on behalf of the James Packer-backed developers Time and Place over a controversial $100 million Potts Point apartment complex. The meeting was part of a successful, year-long effort to exempt it from a City of Sydney policy aimed at blocking developments that resulted in an overall loss of housing.

On Saturday, the Herald revealed Iemma, a NSW Labor elder statesman and registered lobbyist whose client book includes a long list of major property developers, has enjoyed frequent access to the highest levels of the Minns government since it was elected in March 2023.

The revelations were contained in hundreds of pages of documents, obtained by the Herald via freedom-of-information requests, which raise questions about how the Minns government manages the line between Iemma’s position as an influential Labor elder statesman with close personal ties with senior government figures, including Minns, and his position as a lobbyist and adviser for property developers.

Iemma told the Herald that he had “no discussion of individual clients” in meetings with either Scully or Minns, and played down his influence in the Labor government, saying the bulk of his communication with their offices was “purely administrative chase ups”.

He said he carries out his roles “in accordance with the code enshrined in legislation governing consultants [and] third-party lobbyists”.

“This includes requisite disclosures, probity and ethics assessments,” he said. He also told the Herald that the bulk of his correspondence with the offices of both Minns and Scully were “purely administrative chase ups”.

A spokeswoman for Scully said, “all meetings are disclosed as required on a quarterly basis and published on the Premier’s Department website”.

“The minister and Mr Iemma have not discussed any projects relating to his work as a principal of Iemma Patterson Premier Advisory Group (IPPA), noting Mr Iemma is registered as a third-party lobbyist,” the spokeswoman said.

The April 2024 meeting with Scully has previously been made public via ministerial diary disclosures introduced by Mike Baird in 2014 to increase transparency over government dealings with lobbyists.

In a two-word description, the disclosure listed the meeting as being about “planning matters”.

It has been the subject of criticism from the Coalition because Iemma was not listed as a lobbyist. Other meetings with Scully and Minns have also not listed him as a lobbyist. The government says it did not need to because Iemma was not representing a client.

In a parliamentary hearing, Scully defended that decision because “people can have multiple roles in life”.

“He was a former premier when he was there,” he said during budget estimates last year.

The emails show Iemma requested the meeting with Scully to discuss the axing of the Greater Sydney Commission, which had been responsible for setting the city’s strategic planning decisions, late in 2023.

As a former GSC commissioner for southern Sydney, Iemma wanted to “share with you some of my experiences” and had some advice about its “strategic planning functions”.

“I believe this can be of assistance to you and the department in navigating the way forward post the changes announced at the end of last year,” he wrote.

But the Herald can reveal that it took place against the backdrop of a flurry of correspondence from Iemma and his company on behalf of his clients.

Among the documents is evidence of Iemma’s successful effort to help a controversial James Packer-backed development in Potts Point win a carve out from a City of Sydney plan to block developments that led to an overall loss of housing.

Developer Time and Place plans to knock down The Chimes building of 80 one-bedroom and studio apartments on Macleay Street to construct a nine-storey tower of about 34 apartments, including an allocation of affordable housing.

The development has drawn the ire of some residents due to the loss of relatively affordable housing in the inner-city suburb.

Backlash was significant enough that in September 2023, City of Sydney Greens councillor Sylvie Ellsmore drafted a proposal to block new developments that resulted in a 15 per cent reduction in existing housing.

The council took the first step towards adopting the plan in December, despite opposition from Time and Place and the developer lobby.

But the dwelling retention proposal still needed sign-off from the state government, and, frustrated by the council’s decision to introduce new rules while its development was “already under assessment”, Time and Place hired Iemma as a lobbyist in March 2024.

It was the beginning of a year-long effort to make Time and Place’s development exempt from the new dwelling retention rule.

In April 2024, Iemma secured a meeting with planning officials through Scully’s deputy chief of staff, Gino Mandarino.

Two months later, in June, the department issued a gateway determination – essentially a checkpoint for a planning proposal – that instructed the council to insert what’s known as a savings provision, essentially a legal carve-out for certain types of developments, including those already in train.

It also made the state government, not the council, the final decision-maker over the proposal.

But the developer was unhappy with the wording of the savings provision eventually inserted by the council, and Iemma continued to lobby Scully’s office on its behalf. A second meeting with the department was held in November, and in December, Urbis wrote to the government to complain that the council had not listened to its “strong grounds for why the proposal should be excluded from this policy change”.

After Iemma held a third meeting with planning officials in February this year, Mandarino asked the department for an update and was told they were investigating how to “frame a savings provision to strike the right balance” between what the developer wanted and the intent of the council’s changes.

When Mandarino asked whether the developer was “satisfied with these discussions”, the official said they “would have liked more certainty [but] if anything it’s in T&P’s interest for this process to drag out, as it will allow their development application to have progressed further”.

Later the same month, Mandarino met Iemma himself. Ahead of the meeting, the department informed him that it was working on a draft wording which would “align to the outcome sought by Time and Place”.

Iemma and his wife, fellow IPPA employee Santina Raiti, continued to press Mandarino for updates in April and May.

On May 21, the department official wrote to Mandarino to tell him the LEP wording had been finalised and would be published the following week.

“I just gave Santina a call to let her know, which she was fine with,” he wrote.

“You are a scholar and gentleman,” Mandarino replied.

Ellsmore, the Greens councillor who moved the dwelling retention policy, was furious at Iemma’s involvement as a lobbyist in the Time and Place development.

“It is outrageous if developers paid the former premier to get access ... to win more favourable treatment for their development than they could get through council,” she said.

“It is especially outrageous … to green-light the destruction of affordable homes, so luxury apartments can be built instead”.

Time and Place, however, argues that City of Sydney’s decision to introduce the policy while the project was already in train (the developer and the council were involved in a Land and Environment Court case over the project when the policy was introduced) forced it to get help. It was seeking “procedural fairness”, not “special treatment”, a spokesman for the developer said.

The spokesman said the city’s dwelling retention policy “changed the planning framework midstream” and created “uncertainty for projects already under assessment”.

“Time & Place’s subsequent engagement with the Department of Planning focused on our view that the project should continue to be assessed under the correct, lawful rules that applied when it commenced,” he said.

“The engagement of IPPA and Morris Iemma’s advice was sought by us to ensure we did things the right way – and complied with regulations while speaking to the appropriate people through the proper channels.”

There is no suggestion that lobbying rules have been breached by Iemma, the government or Time and Place. The developer ultimately lodged an application to have its project assessed as a state significant one.

But it raises fresh questions over how the government manages Iemma’s twin role as both a lobbyist and a senior Labor figure.

Iemma enjoys close relationships with senior figures in the government, and has often been described as a mentor to Minns.

He also helped with the premier’s local re-election campaign in 2023, and both of his sons have worked for the premier since Labor returned to government. The government also appointed Iemma as chair of Venues NSW in 2023, although he later pulled out of the role, citing poor health.

A spokeswoman for Scully said that any inquiries from Iemma to the minister’s office “are referred to the department for response or updates”.

“All assessment outcomes recommended to the minister for approval were determined by the Department of Planning, Housing and Infrastructure through its standard assessment processes,” the spokeswoman said.

But the Time and Place development is just one of many the documents show Iemma and his firm lobbying Scully’s office over.

Under current rules, many are not required to be, and are never, made public.

The February meeting with Mandarino over the Time and Place development was never made public because ministerial staff are not subject to disclosure requirements.

Others, including meetings on behalf of developers such as Deicorp, Vicinity and Landmark Group, avoided public disclosure for the same reason.

The Herald revealed on Saturday that Iemma also met other senior staff in Chris Minns’ office, including one adviser with whom he had a scheduled “regular catch-up”. The government said that adviser had only met Iemma once, and had no other meetings planned with him.

Iemma petitioned the same adviser – as well as the Secretary of the NSW Premier’s Department, Simon Draper — over a stalled housing project in Menangle, which was subsequently given a provisional go-ahead by the NSW Planning Department.

The Herald also revealed that Minns did not disclose a meeting with Iemma in April 2024 that occurred just a week before the former premier lobbied his office over two major housing projects. The government said Minns did not need to disclose the meeting because it was “solely about party political matters”.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption has repeatedly urged the Minns government to overhaul lobbying rules, including by introducing a stand-alone regulator and creating obligations for public officials who are lobbied.