Shoalhaven City Council Election Campaigns

Ms LEE RHIANNON [11.51 p.m.]: This week Mayor Greg Watson and some other Shoalhaven City councillors voted to overturn a previous council decision to allow the media to attend a meeting called to discuss Independent Commission Against Corruption recommendations aimed at minimising corruption risks in the development approval process. Mayor Watson's role in reducing council transparency is in addition to other activities where the mayor has failed to provide correct information to the Election Funding Authority on in-kind political donations.

Mayor Watson made copious use of material printed from Haven Printing during the 2003 New South Wales State election campaign. Invoices from Pinpoint Advertising showed that 110,000 brochures were delivered throughout the electorate. At least another 50,000 how-to-vote brochures would also have been required on election day. The expected printing cost for about 160,000 brochures would be around $8,000. Yet, despite this use of printed material during the election campaign, no expenditure or in-kind assistance was disclosed to the Election Funding Authority. Mayor Watson did not declare $8,000 worth of in-kind donations as a political contribution, nor did Haven Printing submit any donor declaration for the in-kind donation.

Printed material was used even more extensively by Mayor Watson during the 2004 Shoalhaven local government election campaign: 17 different how-to-vote brochures were submitted to the Election Funding Authority and a wide range of brochures was also used as direct mail advertising leading up to the election. Approximately six tonnes of paper, or 22 A4 sheets per Shoalhaven elector, were supplied by Shoalhaven Paper and delivered to Mayor Watson's business address at a cost of $16,328, according to Election Funding Authority invoices. The cost of the printing service provided would normally be approximately $45,000, but the amount reportedly paid to Haven Printing was just $2,500. That leaves more than $40,000 unaccounted for. Both Mayor Watson's party and the business that made the donation should have publicly disclosed details of this donation.

The proprietorship of Haven Printing remains unclear. It was neither a registered trading name through the Department of Fair Trading nor a registered company through the Australian Securities and Investment Commission; it did not advertise locally as a printing service; and it was not listed in the telephone directory. But there is evidence that points to Haven Printing being a business controlled by Mayor Watson. For example, electoral material showed the address of Haven Printing to be the same address as Save Money, a legitimate business owned by a Watson family company. Also, deliveries of printing supplies invoiced to Haven Printing were addressed to Save Money. Invoices from Haven Printing to several other candidates used the Australian Business Number for Save Money, but not the trading name.

We found that past brochures listed the telephone number for Mayor Watson's business under the printer declaration for Haven Printing. Haven Printing has also been used to print election material for candidates outside the Shoalhaven Independents Group, including John Anderson and Trevor Kilner. These candidates gave favourable preference flows to Mr Watson and the Shoalhaven Independents Group. Haven Printing printed Mr Anderson's 2004 group how-to-vote and election leaflets. On his return lodged with the Election Funding Authority, Mr Anderson indicates that he received a $500 donation and that the group's printing costs were $499.80. Considering the printing cost relative to other candidates, it would appear that he has failed to acknowledge an in-kind donation arising from inadequate consideration.

Mr Trevor Kilner, a 1999 and 2004 Shoalhaven candidate, was the managing director of the weekly Shoalhaven Independent newspaper. Mr Kilner gave his first preference to Mr Watson—a choice he is obviously free to make. Mr Kilner's newspaper carried regular prominent advertisements over the months preceding the 1999 election for Trevor Kilner, Greg Watson and another candidate, Peter Murphy. Despite multiple advertisements with many half-page advertisements, Mr Kilner's newspaper advertising expenditure for this period was only $1,000. There is no disclosure of in-kind donations arising from inadequate consideration between Mr Kilner and the newspaper. Neither Mr Watson nor Mr Murphy provided any details of expenditure of donation details for advertising in the Shoalhaven Independent.

Mr Kilner is now a member and deputy-registered officer for the Shoalhaven Independents Group. The Shoalhaven Independent newspaper company went into receivership in December 1999 owing $460,000. Creditors of this company, probably unknown to them, were, in fact, funding advertisements for certain candidates in the Shoalhaven local government election. Clearly, Mr Watson and a number of other candidates in the last Shoalhaven local government election failed to abide by the funding disclosure rules. The failure to disclose what are clearly in-kind donations underlines the need to ban political donations from corporations and other organisations. The Election Funding Authority needs to be allocated increased resources.

[Time for debate expired.]

Question—That this House do now adjourn—put and resolved in the affirmative.

Motion agreed to.