The former Brisbane lord mayor Jim Soorley suggested a Queensland mayoral candidate use a “third party” to solicit donations from large council suppliers.
The Logan mayoral candidate Luke Smith, who is now mayor, balked at the suggestion of his “mentor”, Soorley, that he seek donations from “big suppliers to Logan city”, citing a “fear” of a conflict of interest if he did so, according to minutes of a 2015 campaign meeting.
Smith subsequently agreed to make a list of suppliers that Soorley would approach to “start collecting donations”, according to the minutes, tabled in state parliament and a Crime and Corruption Commission inquiry.
But Soorley, who was listed as the chair of Smith’s mayoral campaign executive, told Guardian Australia that no suppliers were approached in the end because Smith declined to provide a list.
He backed the account Smith gave to the CCC in a public hearing last week, when the mayor said council suppliers were not appropriate donors as “it would probably look like I was helping somebody get a contract that they may not have otherwise got, or kept it that way”.
Smith told the CCC the minutes showed he had agreed to make a list of suppliers for Soorley to approach for donations.
He said he could not remember whether he compiled “any list of that kind” but he “never actually followed through with that action” to enable Soorley to start asking for money.
“That certainly didn’t happen and, as you can see, there were no donors who were contractors to council to my campaign,” Smith said.
He said most of the suggestions in the meetings “never actually happened, and these are just minutes on ideas on how we can move forward to run a healthy campaign and also raise funds”.
“I’ve never thought it was appropriate to seek funds from people who have contracts with council.”
Minutes of an executive meeting on 22 April 2015 state that Soorley “advised he was willing to start calling donors and asking them for donations” as soon as a bank account and a “shelf company” called Logan Futures were set up for campaign fundraising.
Soorley, a Labor party member and chairman of state government-owned corporations Unity Water and CS Energy, then “asked about big suppliers to Logan city council”.
Smith was “hesitant to ask these companies for funding for fear of conflict”, the minutes state.
Soorley then “advised [that Smith] didn’t need to contact, that third parties would be contacting the companies”.
The minutes then state that Smith was to “compile a list of potential donors and suppliers to Logan city council”.
Minutes for the next campaign meeting on 20 May state that this remained an “outstanding task” for Smith. Soorley was also listed as the “task owner” for “[contacting] donors on list to start collecting donations”.
Soorley told Guardian Australia that neither man had followed through on these tasks.
“Luke said he didn’t want to do the list so no list was done,” he said. “No one was approached.”
Smith in a statement on Friday said: “Jim has been a mentor of mine for many years. There is absolutely no impropriety with his involvement.”
