THE TWEED SHIRE Volume 1 #50 Thursday, August 20, 2009 Advertising and news enquiries: Phone: (02) 6672 2280 Fax: (02) 6672 4933 editor@tweedecho.com.au adcopy@tweedecho.com.au www.tweedecho.com.au
UT TO F I L
LOCAL & INDEPENDENT
Political gift’s timing ‘purely coincidence’
E DL ID -M
S GE PA
Tweed goes bananas
Ken Sapwell
Casuarina estate developer, Don O’Rorke, has dismissed as ‘coincidence’ the timing of a $50,000 political donation from one of his companies seeking government approval to remove hundreds of beachfront parking spaces. The Queensland-based property tycoon acknowledged that Kings Beach No. 2 had tipped the money into Labor Party coffers just three weeks after the government was re-elected and 18 months after it first applied for the changes. He said he was a supporter of the political process and had made donations to all major political parties over a long period, although the April 2007 tip was the first to the NSW branch of the ALP. ‘The timing of the donation is purely coincidence in that we have not yet received an approval for the town centre, so no way can it be construed that we were either prepaying or paying after the event for any One of the most popular floats in Banana Festival parades is the Krishna community’s approvals,’ he said. chariot, pictured here with Lakshman and Dhire-Lalit on it, while Klindi nurses Bala Govinda. The chariot will be a colourful part of the parade this Saturday from noon. With bananas lining the shop windows of Murwillumbah and Banana Jim getting about in his bow tie, it is clear Banana Festi-
Growing concerns
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Details of the donation emerged amid growing community concerns that the state government is about to step in and override Tweed council’s insistence that the developer retain beachfront car parking spaces. Although the NSW government is the consent authority, the council holds the ace hand because it will only agree to hand over part of a natural stormwater swale to make way for a bigger supermarket if the developer sticks to the original parking concept in court approved plans. Residents are divided over the issue, with some fearing council’s stand will stall plans for a supermarket while others say beachfront car parks are a must to cater for visitors whose cars already clog nature reserves and nearby streets. Fears of direct intervention in council affairs came after the council voted to call the bluff of the state’s government and its planning director general, Richard Pearson, who signalled his strong support for the developer’s plans.
‘It is an insult to the diligent and talented officers assessing the application to suggest a political party let alone a government in power would unduly influence their deliberations,’ Mr O’Rorke said.
Undermine public trust But Greens MP, Sylvia Hale, who has compiled a dossier tracking a link between donations and approvals, said the situation at Casuarina demonstrates how political donations can undermine public trust in the planning system. ‘People are entitled to ask, has this big do-
Photo: Jeff Dawson val fever has gripped some of the Tweed. Although the annual festival officially kicked off last week, Saturday will mark the biggest day of the event with the colourful street parade and Banana Queen crowning. Dozens of floats will take to the streets of Murwillumbah from noon to 1.30pm, starting at the Murwillumbah Showground and finishing at Knox Park where a family
fun day will be held. In the evening is the all-important festival ball and crowning of the Banana Queen from 7pm at the Murwillumbah Civic Centre. It will all wind up on Sunday with a breakfast fry up in Budd Park from 9am, perfect for those with banana hangovers, and the Tweed River Spectacular (see more festival news overleaf).
nation to the ALP affected the way the project is being assessed? Are decisions about this project based solely on what’s in the community’s interest or are those decisions being tainted by the money that the developer has paid to the NSW Labor Party?’ she asked. ‘It’s time the government and opposition bit the bullet and banned these sorts of political donations altogether. That is the only way to genuinely start cleaning up the conflicts of interest and outright corruption that is undermining public faith in the NSW planning system,’ said Ms Hale, whose request to the ICAC to investigate her dossier has
been rejected by the corruption watchdog. Other residents’ groups and at least one councillor has branded the plan to remove most of the beachfront parking as a de facto privatisation of the beachfront, but Mr O’Rorke says a new road running perpendicular to the beachfront will meet parking needs.
One of the biggest donors Mr O’Rorke last came under the spotlight over donations in the Tweed when an inquiry found he was one of the biggest donors to a continued on page 2
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