By AAP
A former Victorian minister lobbied for a developer in exchange for donations to help successfully elect his daughter and sitting Labor MP Kat Theophanous.
The Independent Broad‐based Anti‐corruption Commission tabled a special report into Theo Theophanous on Wednesday after a three-year investigation.
Mr Theophanous, it found, failed to declare he was lobbing for Australian Education City, the preferred developer of a proposed $31 billion project in East Werribee.
The project to turn the government-owned land into an education, research and housing precinct was halted in 2019 when expressions of interest were terminated, leading to the AEC launching legal action.
Mr Theophanous, a former minister in the Kirner, Bracks and Brumby governments, was a member of the Victorian Planning Authority board and misused his position to lobby ministers and departmental officers to favour AEC.
“In lieu of direct payment for his lobbying, he obtained benefits from AEC and its associates in the form of donations to his daughter’s campaign for election to the Victorian parliament,” IBAC’s acting commissioner Stephen Farrow wrote in his foreword.
There was no evidence Ms Theophanous was aware of the circumstances behind the donations and no adverse findings were made about her or AEC in the report.
In February 2018, an AEC representative approached Mr Theophanous as a possible lobbyist as he was someone “more senior” and had some “cabinet experience”.
AEC executives decided to not engage Mr Theophanous as a lobbyist unless he could provide a letter from the planning authority indicating it would not constitute a conflict of interest.
Two unnamed AEC representatives told the watchdog Mr Theophanous did not provide the written assurance but they continued to engage him despite not formally appointing him as an lobbyist.
In September 2018, IBAC said a company whose directo r was one of the AEC representatives made a $10, 000 donation to Labor’s Northcote election campaign account after Ms Theophanous was preselected.
Mr Theophanous also arranged for the AEC to buy tickets to fundraising events to support Ms Theophanous’ election in July and October. Tickets were sold for between $2000 and $2500 a head.
Other “in-kind” contributions were made by the other AEC representative, including 250 phone calls to Chinese-speaking constituents, translation of a letter with a Chinese salutation and providing people to hand out how-to-vote cards at pre-poll booths.
Mr Theophanous conduct was found to be improper rather than corrupt, meaning IBAC won’t refer him to Victoria Police.
In a 13-page submission, Mr Theophanous said he absolutely and categorically rejected the findings.
“IBAC”s investigation is based on testimony from two unidentified witnesses whose personal or political agendas are unknown,” he wrote.
“They are referred to in the re port, but their testimony is not quoted at all.”
A fair-minded and reasonable person reading the report, he said, would conclude that IBAC’s findings remain “untested in evidence and therefore unsubstantiated”.
“No public good is served by the publishing the report which will damage reputations of innocent persons,” Mr Theophanous said.
He resigned from the VBA board last week and the government has asked him to immediately step down as a State Trustees board member.
“The allegations revealed as part of Operation Clara are damning and go to the judgement of Mr Theophanous,” a government spokeswoman said.
Key report recommendations include the Department of Premier and Cabinet amending appointment guidelines in relation to lobbyists and the Victorian Public Sector Commission expressly banning public entity board directors from carrying out linked lobbying activities.
The Andrews government has offered in-pri nciple support to implement all four of IBAC’s recommendations.
