30 November 2009
The NSW Governments proposed ban on political donations by property developers will be weak, ineffective and will fail to re-build confidence in government decision-making, according to the Urban Taskforce.
The community understands a property developer to be someone who earns income from the development of land, Mr Gadiel said.
However, the government has taken a narrow technical view of a ˜property developer the bill essentially says a property developer is someone who makes a lot of planning applications.
This means that a fly-by-night property developer, whose company has made only a single planning application, will be exempt from the ban.
Most property development projects are carried out by individuals such as real estate agents, small-scale builders, hoteliers, accountants and lawyers who have opportunistically bought a site and are aggressively pursuing a development approval.
The shelf used to buy the land will normally never have previously made a planning application, and may never do so again.
The biggest corruption risks arise when unprofessional individuals buy a single site and try to secure a favourable development approval or rezoning.
These individuals sometimes end up with sites that have restrictions they didnt anticipate.
Mr Gadiel said that big land owners seeking to make money from the re-development of surplus or underutilised lands are also to be exempt from the ban.
A lot of people get into property development because they find themselves in possession of surplus or underutilised land that is ideal for redevelopment.
Mr Gadiel said that examples include:
- Coal and Allied, a mining company, who owns a large site near Catherine Hill Bay;
- Sydney Airport Corporation who has sought to develop a retail precinct on airport lands in Botany;
- Fosters Group, a beer manufacturer, who sought to develop the Carlton and United Breweries site on Broadway in Sydney; and
- greenfield land developers once it became clear that their land is well position to support urban expansion.
These big landowners are to be exempt from the government ban, if they arent a regular planning applicant.
Mr Gadiel said that individuals and companies merely speculating on changes in development controls might also escape the ban.
The ICAC inquiry into Strathfield Council featured speculators, who had made no planning applications, but had acquired land in anticipation of new development controls.
We ask that this bill be referred for a swift Parliamentary inquiry as matter of urgency.
Any inquiry should focus on how the bill can be re-drafted to apply a general ban on political donations from everyone, in every sector of society, whilst still preserving the civil rights of individual citizens to participate in the grass roots democratic process.
The Urban Taskforce is a property development industry group, representing Australias most prominent property developers and equity financiers.
The construction activity made possible by property developers contributes $78 billion to the national economy each year and creates 849,000 direct jobs.
