Shadow Minister for the Central Coast, Mr David Harris, has called on NSW Premier, Ms Gladys Berejiklian, and Planning Minister, Mr Anthony Roberts, to review all decisions made by former Resources and Energy Minister, Mr Chris Hartcher, following allegations outlined on the front page of the Sydney Morning Herald, on Monday, February 5.
Mr Harris said there had been numerous questions around Mr Hartcher’s interactions with mining companies, documented since 2012, which would undermine public confidence that decisions made were free of undue influence. “The NSW Liberal Government’s backflip on the Wallarah 2 Coal Mine after former Minister Hartcher and Premier O’Farrell’s “ironclad” commitment to prevent mining if elected, has led to high levels of public mistrust in the state’s mining approvals system,” Mr Harris said. “Mr Hartcher’s relationship with proponents of the Wallarah 2 project raises serious questions which, coupled with the allegations in the Sydney Morning Herald, should lead the Premier and Planning Minister to review all decisions made between 2012 and 2014. Mr Harris’ list of the interactions that could have undermined public confidence included Mr Hartcher’s 2014 trip to South Korea with KORES lobbyist Mr Mick Di Girolamo. He also listed the NSW Government’s refusal, in 2014, to disclose what contacts Mr Hartcher had with Mr Di Girolamo regarding the Wallarah 2 proposal.
Then there was former Premier’s, Mr Barry O’Farrell’s, forced resignation in 2014 over a bottle of Penfold’s Grange that he received as a gift from Mr Di Girolamo, and again, in 2014, when it was revealed that Mr Hartcher had dinner with Kores executives at the home of Mr Di Girolamo. “The whole Mining approval process in NSW has lost the Public’s confidence and the Premier needs to act,” Mr Harris said. “In 2011, Barry O’Farrell said there were no ifs and no buts about the mine being stopped, well now, there is no explanation about why his position changed,” he said. “There has been no real resolution as to questions around donations made to the Liberal Party leading up to the 2011 NSW election and what long-term decisions were influenced.
“The Central Coast Community, indeed the whole State, are left with the legacy of questionable decisions which may have been made under the influence of outside donors.” The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) Operation Spicer investigation findings included that Mr Hartcher, among others, acted with the intention of evading laws under the Election Funding, Expenditure and Disclosures Act 1981, relating to the disclosure of political donations and the ban on donations from property developers.
The Commission also found that Mr Di Girolamo, and others, acted with the intention of evading the election funding laws relating to the disclosure of political donations. ICAC found that during November and December 2010, the Free Enterprise Foundation was used to channel donations to the NSW Liberal Party for its 2011 state election campaign so that the identity of the true donors was disguised. ICAC also found that there were payments made by property developers, who were prohibited donors, to help fund NSW Liberal Party candidates’ campaigns in the Hunter. The true nature of these payments was disguised, for example, as consultancy services or funnelled through another company, with the intention of evading the election funding laws.
The Spicer report noted findings of fact, not findings of corrupt conduct. As a result of operation Spicer, but ICAC called for the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions (DPP) with respect to the prosecution of Mr Hartcher for an offence of larceny. At the time of going to press no decision by the DPP had been made. Allegations raised in the Sydney Morning Herald on February 5 point to the use of “offshore accounts” to make donations to the Liberal Party in return for access to Mr Hartcher by foreign entities wishing to acquire mines in NSW. The Sydney Morning Herald report refers to meetings that took place at the Little Teapot café in Davistown, and to a Liberal Party insider called “Richard”. Mr Harris said ICAC’s Operation Spicer addressed matters that took place prior to the 2011 election, “but no one has ever investigated, as far as we are aware, what happened in 2012, after the election.
“There is clear evidence that there were meetings,” Mr Harris said. “Mr Di Girolamo and Mr Hartcher both went to Korea,” he said. “I have thought for a long time that for Mr O’Farrell, Mr Hartcher and the whole shadow cabinet to publicly promise to stop the mine and then to backflip without ever providing an explanation, there must have been something else that happened. “The NSW Government never came out and said ‘we are really sorry but there were legal impediments to what we wanted to do to stop the mine’. “Now there have been links drawn, links to relationships with Kores after the fact. “You might call it coincidence or you might ask was there influence.
“That is why I am now asking the Premier and Minister whether there needs to be a close look at decisions made while Mr Hartcher was a minister because the community has no confidence in the process. “The average person on the street looks at all these things and then says the relationship between Government and mining is adverse to our interests. “If they hadn’t flown together to South Korea, if they hadn’t had dinner with Kores executives, people may not have asked questions,” Mr Harris said.
Source: Media release, Feb 5 Zachary Harrison, office of David Harris Website, Feb 5 Operation Spicer report, NSW ICAC Interview, Feb 5 David Harris, Shadow Minister for the Central Coast Jackie Pearson, journalist