Orange Grove Affair - Consideration of Retrospective Amendment To LEP

Consideration of Retrospective Amendment To LEP

On 15 April 2004, Mark Ryan, Director of Corporate Affairs, Westfield, phoned Premier Carr's Chief of Staff, Graeme Wedderburn and suggested that the original Liverpool City Council planning approval that had been overturned by the courts had been approved corruptly. Next day Wedderburn discussed these allegations with Carr. Apparently at his own initiative, Wedderburn then phoned Minister Beamer's Chief of Staff, Michael Meagher, and conveyed the allegations. He later phoned Beamer, and told her to "be wary of things that come out of Liverpool. There had been some allegations from Westfield." On 19 April, Ryan met Wedderburn and gave more details of his claims about Liverpool City Council, but conceded that he had no hard evidence. Wedderburn told Beamer, at a meeting on 20 April, "You should be very careful, you should take great care not to be influenced, subject to any undue influence, not to be inappropriately lobbied in making this plan, in making decisions here", according to Meagher. Nevertheless, according to evidence subsequently presented at ICAC, Wedderburn made no suggestion as to what Beamer's decision on the proposed variation to the LEP should be. Neither Wedderburn nor Beamer made any effort to investigate whether the original decision was corrupt, which, in any event, had little bearing on the current process. During ICAC's subsequent investigations, it focused on whether these corruption allegation affected Bealmer's subsequent decision not to amend the LEP.

On 16 June, the Department of Infrastructure, Planning and Natural Resources, advised Beamer to approve Liverpool City Council's proposed variation to its LEP that would have retrospectively validated the planning approval for the shopping centre. The Department's head, Jennifer Westacott, contradicted this recommendation in a memorandum signed on 25 June. Beamer's Chief of Staff, Michael Meagher, later told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC),"…what we had was something I’d never seen before. It was highly unusual, and it was, I suppose confusing in a way too."

As the date for the centre's closure, set for mid-2004, drew closer, both sides increased the pressure. Westfield declared that an A$150 million redevelopment of its own centre was under threat if Orange Grove was allowed to continue operating, and suggested that Orange Grove could cause the loss of up to A$18 million a year from the local economy. After further discussions with Westacott and a further memorandum, Beamer declined to approve the proposed variation on the grounds that the shopping centre tended to undermine the viability of the Liverpool shopping centre, on 8 July 2004.