Northcote independent calls for developer donation disclosures

Media release

Independent candidate for Northcote, Darren Lewin-Hill, has called for donation disclosures as part of the public application process for all significant developments. The call follows a report in The Age earlier this year that developers had donated millions of dollars to the ALP in Victoria.

"This inconvenient truth seems to have been forgotten in the election debate, and I think it would add to the transparency and accountability of planning decisions in this State," Lewin-Hill said today.

Under the plan, developers would need to disclose as part of their planning application whether they had made donations to the ruling party of the day - Labor or Coalition. There would need to be further discussion regarding the amount that would trigger the disclosure requirement, but it would be there to see for any local resident who wanted to know.

"We're all familiar with the planning permit signs put up on development sites. Let's include on them just how much a given developer has handed over to the political party in power at the time. Wouldn't that be refreshing?" Lewin-Hill said.

Along with the donations to the Labor party from big developers, the Brumby Government has been short on accountability in the area of planning, with its evasiveness in the Windsor Hotel sham consultation affair hardly instilling confidence that all is well in Victorian planning.

Mr Lewin-Hill said there were a number of large developments slated for the Northcote electorate, held by Labor's Fiona Richardson by a margin of 8.5%. He said these would come to fruition in the next term of government, and local residents should be able to see whether any developer of any major site had ever been a donor to the Labor party, and at what level.

"Maybe these sites will be developed by companies with no donation history, but residents deserve to know. The disclosure of political donations of all sorts is something on which there really ought to be a crack-down over the next four years, and independents are well placed to do that," Mr Lewin-Hill said.

Darren Lewin-Hill
0404 526 555

Are political donations driving Victorian development?

As recently reported in The Melbourne Times ('State squashes planning right in bid to save jobs', 11/2/09), the Brumby government is set on 'fast-tracking' major developments by taking them out of the hands of local councils where there is a claimed 'net community benefit', including the creation of jobs in the building industry. A lot rides on how that benefit is (or isn't) defined.

One problem is that, according to a recent report by Royce Millar in The Age based on Australian Electoral Commission figures, the Victorian ALP is a major beneficiary of political donations from big developers. If it's not on for local councillors to vote on developments by developers who have given them political donations, do we really want an ALP flush with developers' cash steamrolling local democratic processes and community concerns? Here's the unedited version of my letter published in today's edition of TMT.

Greg Barber's letter about Greens contributions in Parliament offers an interesting lens through which to examine the Northcote Bowl development.

Barber writes that a private member's Bill he introduced last year aimed to prevent councillors voting on any development where they had received election donations from the developer. Now we have the Brumby State Government giving the green light to the Northcote Bowl development, sidelining a refreshingly feisty council in an undemocratic process.

Yet on 3 February, Royce Millar reported in The Age that, according to Australian Electoral Commission figures, 'corporate donations to Labor are predominantly from firms with lucrative public contracts or planning approvals, or those seeking them'. Millar identified a number of large donations from big developers bankrolling the Victorian ALP. That is to say, development decisions are being taken out of council hands by a government swimming in developers' cash.

While I am not claiming that the developers of the Northcote Bowl are among the ALP's donors, the scale of developer donations to the ALP amounts to inappropriate political influence in favour of bulldozing developments through despite valid community opposition - hardly a 'net community benefit'.

I agree with comments by Rucker Ward Councillor Trent McCarthy reported in TMT that the financial downturn is being used as a pretext to 'push through developments that deserve more scrutiny' (11/2, 'Ire as Brumby bowls residents over'). I look forward to the outcome of Councillor McCarthy's discussions with other Darebin councillors regarding his proposed public meeting on the Northcote Bowl development.