Secret Files Expose Sway Of Developers

Sydney Morning Herald

Saturday April 12, 2008

Wendy Frew, Minh Bui Jones and Matthew Moore

THE State Government dismissed advice from its own planners and allowed developers to clear valuable bushland to build housing estates away from existing towns and transport, after months of aggressive lobbying by developers.

Documents seen by the Herald - some withheld from Parliament - reveal details of an unprecedented land swap in which some of the state's most generous donors to the NSW Labor Party were given the go-ahead to build on sensitive woodland and coastal areas in the lower Hunter. In return they handed over 12,000 hectares of land for national parks.

But in an email dated September 2006 obtained by the Herald, the Department of Planning's then regional director for the Hunter, Steve Brown, told his superiors the credibility of the entire housing strategy was at risk because of the size and location of some of the projects, including one proposed for the tiny coastal village of Catherine Hill Bay.

Mr Brown's email, which warned the Government was making "massive" concessions to developers "with little justification", is missing from eight boxes of documents about the Lower Hunter Regional Strategy tabled with the Clerk's Office in Parliament last year.

Mr Brown was most concerned about a proposal by the land speculator Hardie Holdings to build a new town called Sweetwater at Branxton. In a 2006 assessment, planners rated it last out of 91 potential development sites for the Lower Hunter. It was not well served by transport and was 20 kilometres from the nearest urban centre, Maitland.

Yet the project got the go-ahead. That year the Government accepted a scaled-down version of Sweetwater - 7000 homes versus an original 28,000 - in its final Hunter strategy in exchange for Hardie handing over 7400 hectares to the national parks system.

This was not before intense pressure from the company, which was then making regular donations to the NSW Labor Party.

Graham Richardson, the former boss of the Premier, Morris Iemma, led an intensive lobbying campaign by Hardie Holdings to persuade the Government to boost Hunter Valley population forecasts and open more land for residential development.

Other government documents reveal relentless lobbying and complaining by Hardie Holdings to have Sweetwater, later renamed Huntlee, included in the Government's lower Hunter Regional Strategy.

In August 2006 the chairman of Hardie Holdings, Duncan Hardie, wrote to the Planning Department's director-general, Sam Haddad, complaining that environmental groups were exploiting the department modelling as a reason for Sweetwater not to proceed and, if it did, "obviously Hardie has corrupted the system".

Mr Hardie had expected the modelling would be changed to "rectify the false and misleading information ... As this has not happened we feel we have no option but to begin lobbying all cabinet ministers against the information contained in the department document and to refute it".

Mr Hardie declined to comment to the Herald.

Electoral Funding Authority records published this week show that, in the four years leading up to the election last year, companies associated with Duncan Hardie donated $174,600 to the NSW Labor Party while the Catherine Hill Bay developer, Rose Group, gave $143,500.

A spokesman for the founder of Rose Group, Bob Rose, said political donations were a "legitimate way of participating in the political process". He rejected any claim that its project would diminish the area's heritage.

In his email Mr Brown said there was a risk that trade-offs with developers would come at a great cost to local communities and good planning.

"The amendments and concessions that we are now contemplating could put the credibility of the whole exercise at risk unless we reduce the scale of development that is being contemplated in the following critical locations," said Mr Brown in his email to the executive director of rural and regional planning, Richard Pearson.

Mr Brown said 700 new dwellings to be built at Crangan Bay, on Lake Macquarie, were "excessive in scale and inappropriately located" and Rose Group's 60-hectare proposal at Catherine Hill Bay would "overwhelm the heritage and other unique qualities of this tiny village". More than 900 houses were proposed for Catherine Hill Bay, of which 600 belonged to the Rose Group development.

A Planning Department spokesman said the department did not know whether this document was ever considered for inclusion in the boxes but if it had been considered it would not have been included because it "referred to advice to cabinet". He said two other missing documents referred to a technical issue about local environmental studies and were therefore outside the scope of the call for papers, made in 2006 by the Legislative Council in response to community concern.

As early as March 2005 the Minister for the Hunter, Michael Costa, echoed the views of developers when he told a meeting of town planners strategic planning was a waste of time.

According to those attending, he said he favoured an approach whereby the Government put in the infrastructure and left it to market forces to determine where development should go.

He told Mr Brown, who was at the meeting, that with his attitude he would not last long in his job. Mr Brown would not comment.

However, on the Hardie Holdings proposal, Mr Brown advised: "The prospect of HH being offered 8000 dwellings sites, 160ha of employment land and 300 rural residential lots is a massive concession with little justification, particularly given the reluctance to dedicate a major proportion of the residue Sweetwater area [to national parks]".

Mr Brown's advice followed earlier advice from officials that the Hardie site was too big and in the wrong place for new housing.

In July 2006 the then Hardie general manager Matthew Somers complained to Mr Haddad that his officers' bias had "resulted in maladministration of departmental guidelines to the detriment of our company".

A month later Mr Hardie sent his missive to Mr Haddad that he would "begin lobbying all cabinet ministers".

The Minister for Planning, Frank Sartor, defends his decision to include Sweetwater and other controversial housing proposals in the Lower Hunter Strategy because of environmental gains. He dismissed criticism that pressure from developers played a role and said donations made not a "skerrick" of difference. "We rise above all that," he told the Herald. "A lot of these people don't get what they want. End of story."

ABOUT FACE

HOW IT HAPPENED

2005

NOVEMBER 5: Draft Lower Hunter Regional Strategy released.

DECEMBER 12: Planning Minister Frank Sartor meets Duncan Hardie (below right) and Matt Somers (below left) from Hardie Holdings in Sydney. Also present is Norma Shankie-Williams, the Department of Planning's director of regional co-ordination. She later emails the department's regional director in Newcastle, Steve Brown, saying Sartor firmly opposed Hardie Holding's development proposals.

PRE-CHRISTMAS: Sartor meets landholders Hardie Holdings, Coal & Allied and Rosecorp in Newcastle.

2006

JANUARY 20: Draft regional strategy exhibition closes. More than 1000 submissions received.

FEBRUARY 2: Department of Planning Director-General, Sam Haddad, meets Matt Somers and Duncan Hardie.

FEBRUARY 9: DoP briefing note rejects Catherine Hill Bay development, citing its inconsistency with regional strategy and failure to meet sustainability criteria.

FEBRUARY 17: Norma Shankie-Williams meets Somers and Hardie.

FEBRUARY 21: Cabinet meets in Maitland; Premier Morris Iemma meets the Maitland Catholic Diocese, including Matt Somers, general manager of Hardie Holdings, who also chairs the diocese's Maitland-Newcastle property committee.

FEBRUARY 23: Thirty developers among 700 people at 'Re-elect Frank Sartor' fund-raising dinner, including Hardie Holdings and Rose Group which donate $1000 and $6600 respectively.

MARCH 17: Duncan Hardie writes to Sam Haddad complaining about Steve Brown; Brown replies in a four-page letter. (Both documents missing from those provided to Parliament.)

MAY 23: Handwritten notes in a confidential report by the Department of Environment and Conservation acknowledge that a shift in policy 'is effectively a reversal of current ... policy'.

MAY 29: Eight companies related to the regional strategy each donate $5500 to NSW Labor Party.

JUNE 9: Sam Haddad from DoP and Simon Smith, Deputy Director-General of DEC, meet landholders Rosecorp, C&A, HH and the Stony Pinch Group.

JULY 10: Duncan Hardie writes to Haddad complaining of bias in Newcastle DoP office.

AUGUST 3: DoP executive director Richard Pearson meets Duncan Hardie.

AUGUST 23: Sartor meets Hardie.

AUGUST 21: Hardie again writes to Haddad

accusing Newcastle DoP of bias; warns HH will lobby all cabinet ministers unless DoP rectifies 'false & misleading' modelling.

AUGUST 30: Smith and DoP officials meet C&A, which says Catherine Hill Bay project is a deal-maker or breaker for regional strategy.

SEPTEMBER 1: Sartor meets Hardie. DoP advice to Sartor says government is

reconsidering higher population projections but Sweetwater still not needed.

SEPTEMBER 8: DoP correspondence acknowledges that regional strategy does 'not look like a greater urban consolidation strategy [ie. original strategy] at all'.

SEPTEMBER 20: Steve Brown emails executive director Richard Pearson expressing concern the regional strategy 'is not heading in the right direction'. Pearson asks him to delete the email. (Brown's email missing from documents provided to Parliament.)

SEPTEMBER 21: Pearson and Sartor staffer Andrew Abbey meet Somers and Hardie. Agreement reached on Sweetwater and

Sanctuary Villages projects. SEPTEMBER 25: Hardie and his lawyer meet government officials to sign deal.

OCTOBER 3: Cabinet endorses regional strategy.

OCTOBER 17: Lower Hunter Regional Strategy released.

OCTOBER 26: Department of Natural Resources drops illegal landclearing charge against Hardie Holdings.

SOURCES: DOCUMENTS PROVIDED UNDER PARLIAMENTARY ORDER BY THE DEPARTMENT OF PLANNING AND THE DEPARTMENT OF ENVIRONMENT AND CONSERVATION; OTHER DOCUMENTS NOT PROVIDED TO PARLIAMENT.

© 2008 Sydney Morning Herald

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