Port Stephens MP the latest to go to crossbenches after admitting dishonesty in declaring donations of $79,684 from developers

This article is more than 6 years old

This article is more than 6 years old

The member for Port Stephens, Craig Baumann, has become the 10th NSW Liberal MP to join the crossbenches after being caught up in the ongoing donations scandal.

Baumann became the focus of the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on its final scheduled hearing day on Friday.

Shortly before the 2007 election, Newcastle property developers Hilton Grugeon and Jeff McCloy made payments totalling $79,684 to Baumann’s building company, Mambare.

The money, ostensibly a “consultation” fee, was used for Baumann’s election campaign and declared to the NSW Election Funding Authority as a donation from Mambare.

“That declaration made on behalf of Mambare was a false declaration, wasn’t it,” counsel assisting the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac), Geoffrey Watson SC, asked.

“I accept that,” Baumann said.

“And it was done for a crooked purpose, you were trying to hide the identity of the donors.”

“Yes,” Baumann said, later adding: “I inadvertently made a dishonest declaration and I apologise.”

Only hours after Baumann’s appearance before the commission, the premier, Mike Baird, said he had accepted the MP’s decision to stand aside from the parliamentary Liberal Party and relinquish his parliamentary positions.

“I am not prepared to allow this to become a distraction for the party or the government,” Baird said in a statement.



At the time he took money from Grugeon and McCloy, Baumann was a powerful member, and former mayor, of Port Stephens Council, which was considering a rezoning proposal for Wallalong, an area where both property developers owned large tracts of land.

Watson asked if the donations from Grugeon and McCloy were disguised, “because they were both gentlemen who could make money if they had a favourable decision in respect of Wallalong”.

“Yes,” Baumann said, but maintained the money did not sway his votes in support of the zoning application.

Watson asked Baumann if he would have disguised a $32,000 donation to the MP by Watson himself in the same fashion. “If you gave me $32,000 I’d think about it,” Baumann replied.

Both Grugeon and McCloy denied they had given the donation in order to “buy” Baumann, saying the Port Stephens MP did not have the power to grant the application, which was rejected by the NSW planning department earlier this year.

The commission also heard that in 2011, Baumann asked Vincent Heufel, a customer of his building company, Valley Homes, to make a $100,000 donation directly to the Liberal party rather than pay an invoice he owed Baumann’s business.

Watson suggested the arrangement “had the quite beneficial effect of meaning you didn’t have to pay tax on the $100,000”.

“I don’t know, you’d have to ask my accountant,” Baumann said.

After his evidence, Baumann told reporters outside the commission he would not be standing aside and had only “mucked up” a couple of disclosures.

The federal Liberal senator Arthur Sinodinos was due to appear in the witness box later on Friday.