[Greens-Media] (Sylvia Hale MLC) Greens Call for Sartor to Be Stood Aside

[Christopher Holley]

Greens Call for Sartor to Be Stood Aside

The NSW Greens have called for the Planning Minister Frank Sartor to be
stood aside while there is an independent investigation into
allegations, aired in Sydney newspapers and on last night's 4 Corners
program on ABC TV, that planning decisions he has made were influenced
by political donations and lobbying efforts by developers.

“In both the Tralee development near Queenbeyan and the Sweetwater
development in the Hunter Valley Mr Sartor overrode independent planning
advice in making decisions that delivered huge windfall financial gains
to major donors to the Labor Party,” said NSW Greens Planning
Spokesperson Sylvia Hale MLC.

“Mr Sartor’s continuing assertions that political donations don’t
affect planning decisions become more absurd with each new revelation
that planning advice has been overridden in a developer’s favour.”

“It is not good enough for the Premier to just accept Mr Sartor’s
claims that the donations and the decisions are unrelated. It is time
for a full public inquiry into why the Minister made these decisions,”
Ms Hale said.

“Property developers admit openly that they make political donations
to get access to government Ministers so they can lobby for their
developments. That’s a system that puts developers interests ahead of
the public interest.”

“Ongoing revelations about the link between political donations,
professional lobbyists and Ministerial decisions in favour of developers
have destroyed public confidence in the planning system. The Minister
must bear the responsibility for such a complete public policy
failure,” Ms Hale said.

“Frank Sartor has enjoyed extraordinary discretionary powers under
changes to the planning laws introduced at the time of his appointment
in 2005.  With such enormous power comes enormous responsibility to
ensure that power is not abused or perceived to be used in a partial or
biased fashion. Mr Sartor has comprehensively failed in that
responsibility.” 

“His reign as Planning Minister has seen the planning system beset by
political donations scandals and conflicts of interest. “

“Mr Sartor is fatally compromised as the Planning Minister and the
sooner the Premier takes action the sooner the Labor government can
begin to lift itself out of the mire of ongoing planning scandals,” Ms
Hale concluded. 

Further information: Chris Holley  (02) 9230 3030 / 0437 779 546