The NSW Labor party has written to the state’s electoral commission asking it to investigate allegations the NSW National party accepted nearly $20,000 in breach of the ban on donations by property developers.
In a letter submitted on Tuesday, the local MP for Port Stephens, Kate Washington, alleged the NSW branch of the Nationals accepted $19,350 between 2013 and 2018 from David Maurice (Maurie) Stack, the chairman of Stacks Law Firm on the mid-north coast, and Paul Stack, who runs Stacks Finance.
The donations were disclosed to the NSW commission and in some cases were noted as having been donated to Stephen Bromhead’s campaign.
Bromhead is the MP for Myall Lakes on the mid-north coast. Along with his leader, John Barilaro, he has been a vocal opponent of the koala protections that almost caused a dissolution of the NSW Coalition earlier this month.
The Berejiklian government has proposed a state environmental planning policy to protect koala habitat. It expands the type of vegetation considered core koala habitat, and requires landholders within mapped core habitat areas to put in a special koala report with their development application.
In February Bromhead wrote to the planning minister, Rob Stokes, who has carriage of the koala policy, to pass on an email from Raymond Stack, the chairman of Stacks Finance, concerning the koala planning policy.
“Is there anything that can be done to delay it ’til there is proper consultation”, Stack wrote in a letter to Bromhead dated 24 February, which was later released to the NSW parliament.
Maurie, Raymond and Paul Stack are directors of a company, Hocana Pty Ltd. Washington submitted to the electoral commission that the company owned numerous properties including one which is part of the Figtrees on Manning residential development.
“Furthermore, Hocana Pty Ltd appears to be a member of the Urban Development Institute of Australia NSW (UDIA NSW) – the peak body for the property development industry in NSW – and was named as a finalist in the UDIA awards,” Washington wrote.
The Sydney Morning Herald has reported that Raymond Stack said Figtrees on Manning was not affected by the draft koala policy and was being built on suburban land.
Some of the 271 properties owned by the Stack family – who are major landholders on the mid-north coast – may be affected.
Maurie Stack said: “There has not been any breach of the electoral funding legislation. Hocana Pty Ltd is not and was not a property developer. Nor am I.”
Paul Stack said that in June 2018 he made a donation to the National party relating to budget night.
“So far as I can recall that is the only political donation I have ever made. So far as I know that donation was a perfectly legitimate donation and I reported it as required,” he said.
Bromhead referred any queries about donations to the NSW Nationals office saying all donations were handled by them.
A spokeswoman for the NSW Nationals said: “All donations to the NSW Nationals are disclosed in accordance with the relevant electoral laws.”
The ban on property developers giving to NSW politics was introduced in 2009 to curb the influence of developers over planning and environmental decisions.
But the laws are complex and there remains some uncertainty around who constitutes a property developer.
The definition says it is “a corporation engaged in a business that regularly involves the making of relevant planning applications by or on behalf of the corporation in connection with the residential or commercial development of land, with the ultimate purpose of the sale or lease of the land for profit”.
It also includes a person who is a close associate of such a corporation.
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing on behalf of the Stacks.
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