Victoria’s public sector watchdog has rejected claims that it was unfair in its treatment of an allegedly corrupt property developer in a report that has been kept under wraps for months because of his ongoing legal action.
John Woodman went to the Supreme Court in March to prevent the Independent Broad-based Anti-Corruption Commission (IBAC) from tabling a report in state parliament on Operation Sandon, its long-running investigation of allegedly corrupt land deals in Melbourne’s south-east.
A Victorian anti-corruption probe into developer John Woodman centres on his influence in political circles. Credit:Justin McManus
Woodman claimed IBAC denied him procedural fairness and breached its statutory obligations by not providing him with a reasonable opportunity to respond to the draft report, which mentions him 1450 times among hundreds of pages.
But in redacted submissions, released by the court on Thursday, lawyers acting for the watchdog said Woodman’s claims for “declaratory and other relief are baseless”.
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IBAC provided a draft report to Woodman in two parts, in December last year and January this year, so he could respond to the allegations.
“There is no basis for Mr Woodman’s claim that IBAC is required to disclose all the documents before IBAC or on which it may have relied in preparing the report.
“In any event, Mr Woodman and his legal representatives have had access for a significant time to the bulk of the documents on which IBAC has relied.”
The Operation Sandon report was expected to be tabled in parliament in the first half of this year, but has been delayed by Woodman’s litigation.
On Tuesday, The Age revealed IBAC’s head, Robert Redlich, had complained to the attorney-general that laws allowing people to challenge his draft findings in court were delaying the timely release of corruption reports.
The Operation Sandon report has been delayed by John Woodman’s litigation.Credit:Justin McManus
In IBAC public hearings in 2019 and 2020, Woodman was accused of paying more than $1.2 million to City of Casey councillors and buying political influence by pouring hundreds of thousands of dollars into Labor and Liberal Party coffers.
Operation Sandon has been one of IBAC’s longest-running investigations and is likely to lead to sweeping recommendations for reform, especially in transparency and integrity at local government level.
In June 2020, Woodman abandoned a defamation action against current and former staff at the City of Casey.
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