NSW Central Coast landowner Laurie Denton received approval to rezone a cattle farm into a luxury housing estate less than a month before former State energy minister Chris Hartcher stepped down.
The Tuggerah-based businessman had battled for more than 15 years to build a 270-lot community at "Old Farm" on the western side of the Pacific Highway near Wyong.
When asked if he had made a donation to Eightbyfive or any Liberal Party fund-raising arms, or if he had been approached by anyone soliciting donations, Mr Denton declined to comment. "If you knew what I had been through in the past three years, you wouldn't be asking that question," Mr Denton said on Tuesday.
Mr Denton is just one of more than 10 Central Coast property professionals named as donors or potential donors to entities run by associates of Mr Hartcher, in documents tendered by counsel assisting the Independent Committee Against Corruption Geoffrey Watson, SC.
Patonga Beach Hotel owner Robert Osborne has been named in the documents as a donor expected to give about $25,000 to a group run by Mr Hartcher's associates known as Eightbyfive. He will front the committee as a witness on Wednesday.
Crown Group Holdings chief executive Iwan Sunito, Central Coast-based developer and agent Tim Gunasinghe and developer John Stevens of the Stevens Group will appear as witnesses on Thursday.
They are also alleged to have donated or been approached to donate to Eightbyfive. NSW laws prohibit property developers from contributing to State political parties. Mr Watson has alleged Eightbyfive was a fund-raising vehicle that enabled individuals with interests in property to skirt this law.
Wyong Shire Council mayor Doug Eaton, who is not a property developer and not precluded from making political donations, has also been listed as the head of a group which at one stage was predicted could donate up to $60,000. He has been a vocal proponent of the rezoning for Mr Denton's Old Farm development.
The mayor said he has never made any donations to the party, nor has he been approached by any of Mr Hartcher's associates to make a donation. He characterised Mr Hartcher as a member who wanted to "get things done. He was passionate about trying to get things happening, passionate about the Gosford waterfront [redevelopment] and was also effective in getting roadworks done."
