Inner West Labor’s transparency problem exposed

WENDY BACON

NSW Labor has an accountability and honesty problem, including in the Inner West. This is not to say that the NSW LNP has not established its own shameful record of dodgy practices over the last decade. It has excelled itself in political donation scandals, backroom deals on appointments and pork barrelling.

But we must not forget that Labor lost power under a cloud of corruption, lack of transparency and a notorious planning rort (called Part 3A) that allowed the NSW Planning Ministers to override community opposition and environmental concerns. Two Ministers in earlier NSW Labor governments, Eddie Obeid and Ian McDonald, ended up in prison.

You would expect that after more than a decade in opposition, NSW Labor would be pulling out all stops to convince voters it can be trusted to be transparent and honest. But integrity has not been a big issue in this campaign and alarmingly, missteps, albeit small ones, are already being exposed.

In the last week alone, both Summer Hill MP and Shadow Minister for Transport Jo Haylen and the Labor candidate for Balmain, Philippa Scott have been exposed by the media for a lack of transparency. And this is quite apart from the unanswered questions about why Labor Leader Chris Minns is determined not to agree with the LNP, Greens and Teals to introduce cashless gaming on pokies – a question that even a former Labor leader John Robertson is asking.

Last week, AAP fact-checker found that Labor MP for Summer Hill and Shadow Minister for Transport Jo Haylen had made false statements on 2GB Radio about her past position on the WestConnex system of tollways. She said she had never opposed WestConnex. It didn’t take AAP’s researchers to find ample evidence including in parliament that she had claimed to oppose WestConnex. It’s hard to know why she would think she could get away with these false statements but she may have thought that because 2GB listeners are mainly in the West of Sydney and also older, she could get away with it.

In fact what Labor was doing was walking both sides of the street on WestConnex. It never seriously campaigned against WestConnex but wanted Inner West voters in Newtown, Balmain, Summer Hill and Heffron to think they opposed it.

Independent Inner West Councillor Pauline Lockie lived in St Peters until her house was taken by WestConnex. She was a founding member of the WestConnex Action Group and remembers the period well.. As said told City Hub  this week, “When it came to opposing WestConnex, Labor was never on our side. And they should have been, not just because of the impact WestConnex had on their communities, but because spending billions of dollars on private tollways that don’t solve traffic problems is terrible transport policy.”

This old Labor trick of saying one thing in outer Sydney and another in the Inner West has a long history. Older people in the community remember how when we were fighting Labor’s decision to expand Sydney’s Kingsford Smith Airport in the 1990s, Labor handed out leaflets in the Inner West saying they supported Badgerys Airport in Western while delivering a message in the Western suburbs that Labor was opposed to Badgerys. Labor never supported the ‘No Aircraft Noise’ campaign solution to move Sydney’s major airport out of Sydney. Eventually Labor’s trick was exposed.

This level of deception is harder in the days of the Internet.

Now let’s examine the recent accountability record of Philippa Scott, who is one of a  group of eight Labor Councillors that control the Inner West Council by a single vote.

Scott’s campaign offers large grant to local public school P & C

Last week, the SMH revealed that Scott’s campaign manager’s offer of a grant to Leichhardt Public School P&C had been rebuffed because the P & C Executive Committee believed it was outside acceptable standards of transparency and accountability.

Scott is campaigning to win Balmain back from the NSW Greens. Jamie Parker is retiring after a twenty-four year career in politics. He began as a local councillor and then Mayor of Leichhardt Council which became well known for its local democracy and transparency in decision making. He won the state seat of Balmain from Labor in 2011 and has been the Greens spokesperson on corruption and integrity.

Kobi Shetty, a Greens Councillor, is hoping to win the election on Saturday, keeping the seat in Green hands.

This week, City Hub sent questions to Philippa Scott’s two email addresses.The questions were polite and in line with standard journalism practice. Scott failed to acknowledge the email.

The purpose of these questions was to follow-up on the accusations, published by the Sydney Morning Herald, that Scott has been involved in attempted pork barrelling. Scott’s campaign manager had referred to an ‘internal’ fund and a previously unheard of grant scheme in an email to the Leichhardt school P & C. These questions remain unanswered.

Scott’s pattern on not responding to City Hub began with questions to her about her role in a request to a lessee of a small cafe in Norton Street to nominate Labor Councillor Zoe Tsardoulias to the non-residential voting roll so she could stand in the Marrickville Ward in the 2021 local election campaign on the opposite side of the LGA. Scott had posted a photo of herself with the Mayor Darcy Byrne when she helped open the cafe at around the time the deal was made. Did she make the agreement or was she aware of it? She could have answered ‘no’ but she didn’t. The public continued to be kept in the dark about this highly unusual arrangement. The loophole that allowed the nomination is not illegal but it fell outside public expectations of transparency and for this reason, the NSW Office of Local Government is considering recommending that it be closed.

By ignoring questions on this issue and the Mayor Darcy Byrne’s similar failure to answer questions about his repeated failure to fill disclosure of interest forms correctly, local Labor has demonstrated an antipathy towards the role of public interest journalism. This was confirmed when Scott and all Labor councillors recently voted to cancel the IWC’s advertising contract with the City Hub, the only surviving local media outlet in the Inner West. All Greens and Independent Councillors voted against the cancellation.

Scott’s attempted pork barreling rebuffed because it lacked transparency

Labor’s has promised that if it returns to government, “all grants programmes have clear, transparent and public guidelines and eligibility criteria that inform the awarding of grants.” Scott communications with the Leichhardt P & C reflect practices that fall short of meeting those standards.

City Hub has seen the same emails that were separately revealed by the SMH last week.

Acting on her behalf, Scott’s campaign manager Kieren Ash offered a $20,000 grant from “Labor’s Local Community Grants program” (LCG) to contribute to a school solar energy project. The offer was contingent on Labor winning government.

The P&C was told the “Labor Community Grants program” was based on the current government Community Building Partnership Grants scheme. Under that program, MPs have a $400,000 pool from which they can issue grants to local groups on application.However these grants are advertised and subject to an independent assessment of suitability.

When the P & C asked questions, they were informed that the “LCG is internal to the campaign”. There was an offer to discuss the grant over the phone. A NSW Labor party spokesperson told the SMH, “Labor is in opposition – there is no fund called Labor’s Local Community Grants program.” – which is why we asked further questions.

Scott’s offer does not seem far off an example of attempting to ‘buy votes’. We do not know how many other small deals like this one Labor has made with community organisations across NSW. It would be tempting for an organisation to quietly accept the promise in return for a friendly photo with the candidate. However the Leichhardt Public School P & C demonstrated a principled stance. It felt uncomfortable and declined the offer. According to the SMH, the P & C executive rejected the offer “over concerns it lacked an application or vetting process and could be considered pork-barrelling”.

“Our P&C will not participate in accepting grants ahead of an open competitive grant process as we want to be awarded grants on merit,” the P & C said in a statement to the Herald.

Jamie Parker, who is the Greens spokesperson on corruption and retiring MP for Balmain told the SMH that he has spoken to several local community organisations who have told him that they declined Labor’s offer because it didn’t pass the pub test. “The community expected grant funding to be allocated where it is needed, transparently and based on merit, ” he said.“These grant commitments contravene the most basic integrity measurers to ensure the fair and transparent distribution of taxpayer funds. They are made in secret, without any declarations of conflicts of interest, no merit criteria, or independent assessment,” he said.

Scott also met with residents associated with the struggling Italian Forum in Norton Street and later announced a live screening of a Matilda’s soccer match at the forum during the Women’s World Cup, which will be held later in the year. IWC decided to stage these events after Greens Councillor Dylan Griffith successfully moved a unanimous motion to have live screenings at Leichhardt Oval, Pratten Park, Henson Park and other venues. Resident Nick Viner told City Hub that Scott had followed up after an initial meeting and confirmed that Mayor Darcy Byrne had agreed that the forum would be an additional venue. No application has yet been made by the forum. City Hub submitted questions to the IWC council asking about what decisions had been made about the screenings and how they will be funded. This is micro politics indeed particularly in the context of a State election. But again it’s an issue of transparency. There could be other venues around the Inner West that might like to apply.

In relation to state planning policy, Labor had clarified little about what it will do. There is no indication that it will repeal the State Significant provisions of the Environment and Planning Assessment Act which is the NSW LNP’s version of Labor’s old Part 3A. These provisions have enabled the NSW LNP government to push through unpopular major projects overriding community opposition and environmental concerns. Labor has said it will centralise planning decisions and cut red tape but has offered few specific details. This sounds like a move to concentrate more power at the top. This is exactly the wrong direction to move.

On March 14, Greens Councillor Marghanita Da Cruz moved a motion that the IWC Mayor Byrne write to the Premier Dominic Perrottet, Opposition Leader Chris Minns and Greens MPs asking for commitments to return some local planning decisions to Councils so that the community has a role in decision making. All Greens and Independent Councillors voted for the motion but all Labor Councillors voting against it. So the motion it was lost 8-7.

Labor Councillors also watered down motions calling for action on fossil fuel advertising and voted against repeal of the draconian NSW protest laws. These motions were voted down because they did not fit with the policies of the NSW and Federal Labor machines.

Surely NSW deserves better than two parties vying for who has the worst record on accountability.

One would hope that Labor would have changed during the last decade but its policy platform and 2023 election campaign reminds us more of the old Labor in which hidden deals and lack of accountability stretched all the way from the grassroots to the top. The best result for NSW would be a minority Labor government with Greens and progressive Independents such as Alex Greenwich holding the balance of power. These minority Green and Independent MPs could hold Labor to account and deliver socially progressive policies that address the extremely serious housing, climate change and environmental crises and other social justice issues in a fair and open way.

Wendy Bacon has been covering corruption in NSW state politics for 50 years and is supporting the NSW Greens in the 2023 state election.