[Greens-Media] (Hale MLC) Obeid/Mid-Western Council scandal: time for Premier to act to clean up politics

[Colin Hesse]

Media release
 
>From Sylvia Hale, Greens MP and spokesperson for Planning and Local
Government
 
19 May 2010    - For immediate use       
            
Obeid/Mid-Western Council scandal: time for Premier to act to clean up
politics
 
Following revelations that Labor MP Eddie Obeid has lobbied the Roads
Minister for State Government funding of the Wollar Road in the Bylong
Valley where his family owns a large property, Greens MP Sylvia Hale has
called on the Premier to strengthen the pecuniary interest disclosure
requirements of all State members of Parliament.
 
“MPs should be required to disclose the pecuniary interests of family
members when they are lobbying for a project from which the family may
benefit,” said Ms Hale, Greens spokesperson for Planning and Local
Government.
 
“This is the lesson to be drawn from Eddie Obeid’s lobbying for a
road project in the Bylong Valley.
 
“When Mr Obeid asked Mid-Western Regional Council Mayor Thompson and
Councillor Esme Martens what they were going to do about the road, Mayor
Thompson said Mr Obeid assured them that if the Council ‘put some
funds towards it’, he would get the government to contribute as well.
 
“Clearly Councillors were well aware of the conflict of interest
issues that Mr Obeid’s lobbying raised. At the May 2009 meeting when
the matter was discussed, Councillor Shelley asked ‘Doesn’t  [Obeid]
live down that road?’ to which Councillor Walker promptly responded,
‘Don’t ask that question, Councillor Shelley’.
 
“It seems clear to me and I’m sure to most people that there was,
at the very least, a potential conflict of interest in Mr Obeid’s
lobbying for public moneys to be spent on a road whose sealing could
benefit his family. 
 
“The Premier must immediately move to amend the Constitution
(Disclosure by Members) Regulation 1983 to require Members of Parliament
to report on contact between Ministers or Government representatives and
MPs on matters in which the MP or a close family member of the MP may
have a pecuniary interest. 
 
“The public remembers only too well the comments of former Labor
Premier Nathan Rees that ‘should I not be Premier by the end of the
day, let there be no doubt any challenger will be a puppet of Eddie
Obeid and Joe Tripodi’.
 
“It’s time for the Premier to take meaningful action to reassure
the people of NSW that she is not Mr Obeid’s puppet.
 
“Pious words are not enough. It’s time to impose stricter
disclosure requirements on MPs to ensure the public is not kept in the
dark about who is lobbying for what and who stands to benefit from the
spending of public money,” said Ms Hale.
 
 Contact: Colin Hesse on 02 9230 3030 or 0401 719 124