A New South Wales (NSW) Parliamentary Committee investigating the controversial redevelopment of Rosehill Racecourse has referred the state’s Labor premier, Chris Minns, to the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC).
A Liberal MP chairs the committee, which comprises a majority of opposition and crossbench MPs, but a referral to ICAC does not mean it will decide to investigate.
The $5 billion redevelopment would see the historic track at Parramatta converted into 25,000 new homes as part of an ambitious plan to “re-shape Sydney.”
When it was first announced in December last year, a spokesperson for the Premier described it as “the biggest thing we will ever do as the government ... if this comes off.”
The site is owned by the Australian Turf Club (ATC), whose head of government relations is Steve McMahon, a long-time friend of the premier.
Asked at the budget estimates hearing who had approached him with the proposal, Minns said, “It would’ve been—I can’t remember his position—but Steve McMahon at the ATC. I have known him a long time,” which he later defined as being over 20 years.
In a statement issued on Wednesday night (Dec. 4), he described the decision to refer him to ICAC as “disgraceful,” given that it was “based on no fact or evidence.”
“It’s completely disgraceful to politicise the ICAC with unsubstantiated rumours,” he said. "There is absolutely no evidence or even an attempt to quantify what rule, practice, or procedure has been breached.
“This is an old-fashioned smear from a group of politicians opposed to changes at Rosehill. But while opposing a policy may be understandable, unsubstantiated allegations of corruption is a cynical attempt at political point scoring.”
“Obviously, when you’re in government, people come to you and say, ‘Look, we’ve got an idea. We think this would be good for our organisation,’” he said. “They might make a pitch that it'd be good for the state as well.”
‘Politicisation’ of ICAC: Minns
Speaking at a news conference on Dec. 5, he said, “We have seen the politicisation of the ICAC for a very long time in NSW. It is a political sport but that doesn’t make it right and I think it is a leading reason why people don’t enter politics.“I believe this referral is an example of why it’s almost impossible to build housing in Australia’s most expensive city—in fact, the second most expensive city on Earth.”
He said the state government would not be “intimidated” by referrals to ICAC.
Opposition to the proposal is not confined to Parliament; some Turf Club members are also “incensed,” according to well-known trainer Gai Waterhouse, who told the Committee in July that she was confident that ATC members would not agree to the sale when it goes to a vote.
“We would not be here today to discuss the sale of the cricket ground, the SCG, or Bondi Beach, but yet we are here to discuss the sale of Rosehill,” Waterhouse told the inquiry.
“The members are who own Rosehill. If they put it to the members now for a vote, it would be overwhelmingly against the sale.”
However, the ATC maintains its governing committee has the right to dispose of the property without recourse to its members.Questions About Proceeds From the Sale
Further controversy ensued when independent MP Mark Latham alleged that Racing New South Wales (the representative body that controls thoroughbred horse racing in the state) intended to keep the money from any sale of Rosehill, something the organisation’s Chief Executive, Peter V'landys, denied.He told the inquiry that the regulator did not intend to keep the money but wanted independent oversight of how the ATC spends it.
“We wanted oversight to make sure they are spending the money on racing infrastructure,” he said. “We didn’t want [it] spent on members’ indulgences like ski chalets and resorts in Fiji and resorts in Paris.”
Minns’ predecessor-but-one, Liberal’s Gladys Berejiklian, was also referred to the ICAC over allegations she failed to declare a personal conflict of interest regarding two government grants.The anti-corruption watchdog found that she had engaged in “serious corrupt conduct”—a decision she later tried unsuccessfully to overturn in the NSW Court of Appeal.
