By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Springvale-raised developer John Woodman has denied he “improperly” sought to influence Casey councillors in IBAC’s Operation Sandon report.
According to IBAC, councillors Ablett and Aziz received more than $550,000 each from Woodman and promoted the developers interests in Casey planning decisions such as Amendment C219, the H3 intersection and Pavilion Estate.
For Ablett, Woodman paid part-shares in a race horse, credit card debts, legal fees as well as in-kind engineering, survey and planning work on Ablett’s Curwen Road property.
He also allegedly paid Ablett more than $200,000 for managing the ‘family equine interests’ and vet costs and $168,812 for Curwen Road.
Meanwhile, Aziz was paid more than $600,000 – on top of $600,000 that Aziz handed to Woodman in the form of ‘cash in a suitcase’.
Both councillors have denied any wrongdoing.
IBAC claimed Woodman also “improperly influenced” two other councillors with indirect support such as donating to election campaigns or causes benefiting the councillors.
In his submission to IBAC, Woodman responded that none of the benefits he provided were illegal or improper.
Woodman denied having a “core group of councillors” to support his interests.
“Following June 2016 Watsons (Woodman’s company) had no involvement in planning at the local government level, only state government,” he submitted.
“The evidence is that any influence by Mr Woodman as a consultant was for the proper decisions not improper associated with C219, Brompton Lodge, H3 Intersection and Pavilion Estate.”
However, IBAC rejected Woodman’s arguments.
“For over a decade, Mr Woodman improperly sought to influence councillors to facilitate favourable council decisions,” IBAC stated.
Aziz and Ablett supported the projects and failed to declare conflicts of interest on “many occasions”, it found.
“This conduct was able to flourish unchecked because the City of Casey Council lacked adequate safeguards to ensure core standards of integrity were met,” the report read.
At the State Government level, Woodman sought to influence by “paying lobbyists” and “cultivating relationships” with MPs, ministers and political staff, IBAC found.
He donated generously to party coffers, as well as nearly $170,000 to ALP and Liberal candidates’ campaigns in 2014 and 2018 state elections.
Woodman also covertly supplied close to $100,000 for 11 ‘friendly’ Casey Council election candidates’ campaigns in 2016, IBAC found.
Save Cranbourne West Residents Action Group was financed by developer Leightons – which hired Woodman as a consultant – and was directed behind the scenes by Woodman and his associates.
SCWRAG president Ray Walker and his spouse received $190,000 in consultancy and data-collection fees from Watsons and a Woodman associated Schutz Consulting.
The rewards of success were high.
If Amendment C219 was approved, 123 hectares of industrial land in Cranbourne West would become housing – and worth $35 million more.
Woodman stood to gain a $2 million success fee.
Woodman’s legal attempts to halt the tabling of the IBAC report came to the end after a Victorian Supreme Court of Appeal dismissal on 24 July.
On 31 July, Woodman was set to lead a select media conference.
According to a media alert ahead of the presser, Woodman was part of a “group of victims whose lives have been ruined forever by IBAC’s reckless and dishonest actions during Operation Sandon”.
It cited the “tragic suicide” of former mayor Amanda Stapledon, who took her life in early 2022.
“We will present evidence never before seen by the public,” the media alert read.
