By Cam Lucadou-Wells
Property developer John Woodman has been described in an IBAC anti-corruption hearing as a “king maker” during the election of Amanda Stapledon as Casey mayor in 2018.
Mr Woodman told the Operation Sandon hearing that he’d promised councillor Amanda Stapledon that he’d help her bid for mayor during a meeting in an East Malvern restaurant.
“I would put her in the category of a friend, yes, sir,” he said under questioning of IBAC’s counsel assisting Michael Tovey QC.
His company Watsons sponsored after care services for disabled children at Blairlogie, which cared for Cr Stapledon’s disabled son, the hearing was told.
At the same time, Mr Woodman went cold on mayoral aspirant Geoff Ablett – who according to IBAC has allegedly received more than $300,000 from Woodman and his companies.
On 16 October, Mr Woodman speaks about the election with his consultant Megan Schultz in a tapped call.
Cr Ablett is referred by Ms Schutz as the “best” candidate.
“It’s just a pity he’s bloody conflicted with us. I don’t know why we ever, ever, ever declared a conflict in relation to him,” she said on the call.
Two days later, in another tapped call with Ms Schutz, Mr Woodman is heard to refer to Cr Stapledon as “fatso” while Cr Ablett is “on the nose” with his colleagues.
“He (Cr Ablett) doesn’t know I’ve had lengthy discussions with fatso and… we’re going to keep it that way,” he said.
“He’s obviously on the nose big time … he’s on the way out.”
He said it was “outrageous” that Cr Ablett had been threatening councillors that Mr Woodman would withdraw support from them if they didn’t “play ball”.
“He’s been going around telling people unless they play ball one of their number one supporters is going to withdraw all support from them,” Mr Woodman said.
“As in you?” Ms Schutz said.
“Oh, der! Um, yep,” Mr Woodman replied.
The same day, in another intercepted call Mr Woodman says Cr Stapledon has the numbers and is “100 per cent behind us”.
He’s speaking with his son Heath Woodman who is connected with Cranbourne West developer Wolfdene.
At the IBAC hearing, Mr Tovey asserted that Mr Woodman was the “king maker” at the council – something that Mr Woodman denied.
“I think that what he was referring to was the fact that Councillor Aziz was undecided as to whether he voted for Ablett or for Amanda Stapledon,” Mr Woodman said.
“I would say that I had influence over one person who would ultimately, as it turned out, would decide because of the nature of the voting, system, as I understood it, sir.”
He didn’t support Cr Ablett seeking what would have been his second mayoralty in a row.
“There is no thought in my mind that I wanted Amanda to be mayor because of the fact that NDIS and my son’s assistance at Blairlogie would mean that she was favourable towards Heath,” he told IBAC.
