Business of the House

Ms SYLVIA HALE [11.06 a.m.]: I move:

That standing and sessional orders be suspended to allow a motion to be moved forthwith that Private Members' Business item No. 101 outside the Order of Precedence, relating to the Environmental Planning and Assessment Amendment (Restoration of Community Participation) Bill 2008, be called on forthwith.

This matter is urgent. It is possibly the most urgent matter to come before the House this year. The motion refers to the disrepute into which the entire Parliament is falling as a result of developer donations. Day after day we see headlines revealing incidences of people buying favours and making extraordinarily generous donations to people within the Government and even within the Opposition. The Greens believe it is urgent that this matter be debated. The planning system in New South Wales has plummeted to new depths of disrepute. It is only through the urgent action of Parliament to return the planning system of New South Wales to a clear, transparent and objective process that both investor and community confidence in the planning system will be restored.

This week the Minister for Planning, the member for Heffron, admitted to acting unlawfully. I state for the record that that well-known Labor Party identity, Mr Graham Richardson, has been employed to lobby the Labor Government on behalf of party holdings that have donated $285,700 to the Labor Party in the last decade. The people of New South Wales are rightly questioning how Labor makes its planning decisions. The Minister's admission that she acted unlawfully came within weeks of a decision by the Land and Environment Court describing land swaps at Catherine Hill Bay as land bribes. Today's Sydney Morning Herald reports that well-known Labor Party donor, Mr Roy Medich, stated:

Can you imagine if [Labor] head office rang you up and says 'can you take a table' [in a fund-raising package]—

The Hon. John Hatzistergos: Point of order: The member is now debating the substantive bill. She is not addressing the question of urgency.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I uphold the point of order. I remind members that this debate is about relativities. If members continue to flout my ruling on this issue, I will have no choice but to direct members to sit down.

Ms SYLVIA HALE: It is important that we put into context what is happening in the community in relation to this issue.

The PRESIDENT: Order! Ms Sylvia Hale—

Ms SYLVIA HALE: I am not flouting your ruling.

The PRESIDENT: Order! Ms Sylvia Hale may continue. If the House wishes to change its standing orders, it is free to do so. Otherwise it is my obligation to enforce them.

Ms SYLVIA HALE: This matter is urgent because even the property industry is deploring the influence and the pressures upon it to make donations to political parties. Even the property industry is fed up with the system. As evidenced in the continuing letters to the Sydney Morning Herald and the radio talkback shows, the community as a whole is clearly fed up with it. It is urgent that we address this matter, rather than pretend that somehow the issue can be ignored, swept under the carpet, and that business can continue as usual. For the Government to do nothing will undermine genuine new investment in housing and infrastructure in New South Wales as private investment will hold off decisions until the fall of the Government, given the paralysis that will follow in the wake of recent decisions by the Minister for Planning. It is time for the Government and the Opposition to stop procrastinating on the issue of developer donations and to show the leadership they talk about but show little of. It is urgent that we bring an end to the scandals that are enveloping not only the Minister for Planning and the Government— [Time expired.]

The Hon. JOHN HATZISTERGOS (Attorney General, Minister for Industrial Relations, Vice President of the Executive Council) [11.12 a.m.]: The Government opposes this motion. This item has been on the business paper for some time. Indeed, I note that it was previously debated and adjourned on 8 September 2009. This matter is so urgent that today, notwithstanding the fact that the Parliament has sat for a number of days since 8 September, Ms Sylvia Hale has decided that she wants to prop it up for a debate to pursue her own political agenda. Honourable members are aware of the public discussions that have been taking place on these particular issues. They have been the subject of analysis not only by the States but also by the Federal Government, and a lot of movement has been undertaken in relation to the matter.

Today is a Government business day. There are a number of matters that the Government wishes to have debated and resolved. To suggest that this matter should be debated on what is ordinarily a Government business day and given priority ahead of that business, and indeed ahead of any other matter that members might want to raise, is absurd, particularly bearing in mind that the member only has to wait until tomorrow, which is a day for private members' business, to advance the case for urgency ahead of all the other private members' business that has to be dealt with. In terms of urgency and the need to restore public confidence in this area, it would be interesting if the Greens got their own house in order when it comes to the question of donations.

Something like 15 per cent of the donations to the Greens are ferreted away undisclosed in internal party organisations, such as the Balmain greens and the Port Jackson greens. No-one knows who actually donates the money. That is never disclosed; it is all kept secret. It is all very well for the Greens to pillory everybody else and attack them on the question of disclosure, but when it comes to disclosure on the part of that gang, we do not see it. If the Greens want to do something urgently they should clean up their own house. They should tell all those people, the Northern Beaches greens, the Port Jackson greens and the various other groups—I have a list of all of them—of the big sums of money rolling into the Greens, who do not know who they are.

Ms Lee Rhiannon: Point of order: The Minister is clearly canvassing your ruling. Would it not be best to have a full debate on this issue? It is clear that the Minister wants to explore the issues. Now is not the time to do it. We want to be able to do debate it fully. The Minister is being deceptive. Let us have the full debate, and surely that is where the Minister should take this.

The PRESIDENT: Order! I remind members of my earlier ruling.

The Hon. JOHN HATZISTERGOS: This matter is not urgent because even the Greens, on the question of their own disclosure, have not exhibited the openness and frankness, which they claim everybody else should be held accountable for. For example, the Marrickville greens made a $20,500 donation.

Ms Lee Rhiannon: Point of order: Clearly the Minister is flouting your ruling. Considering that all this information is publicly available, the Minister is misusing this debate to be deceptive, rather than being willing to have a full debate.

The PRESIDENT: Order! Ms Lee Rhiannon is well aware that that is a debating point.

The Hon. JOHN HATZISTERGOS: To the point of order: The information is not publicly available because the $20,500 donation from the Marrickville greens was not accounted for. It simply said, "A donation to the Greens from the Marrickville greens".

The PRESIDENT: Order! I urge all members not to make debating points under the guise of a point of order.

The Hon. JOHN HATZISTERGOS: I would argue that this is a spurious attempt by the Greens to hijack today's agenda ahead of a number of other important issues and it should not be accorded priority.

Question—That the motion be agreed to—put.

The House divided.

Question resolved in the affirmative.

Motion agreed to.


Motion by Ms Sylvia Hale agreed to:

That Private Members' Business item No. 101 outside the Order of Precedence be called on forthwith.