Minister Rob Stokes backed the recommendation to reject the plan for a hotel at Sydney’s Star. Then all hell broke loose

New South Wales is witnessing one of those pile-ons in some sections of the media over an issue that makes one wonder: is this just the work of powerful lobbyists? Or is there a darker game behind all the vitriol?

The issue that’s sparked the latest public mauling by News Corp’s Daily Tele and shock jock Alan Jones is a planning department recommendation two weeks ago that the 237m high proposed Ritz Carlton hotel at the Star casino in Pyrmont be rejected.

The $500m project is still to go to the Independent Planning Commission for a decision. But as communities who have opposed coalmines in the Hunter can bitterly attest, the IPC rarely overturns the department’s recommendation.

What’s riled up the Tele and Jones is that the planning and public spaces minister, Rob Stokes, had the temerity to say the department’s assessment “reflects the consistent and widespread opposition to the scale of this proposal”.

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Jones has called Stokes “delinquent” and called for his sacking.

The Telegraph has run a series of prominent stories with headlines such as: “Robbing the Ritz: Stokes hits the panic button with secret phone call.”

It’s run a feature about how Sydney needs a new hotel and how the development lobby think it’s time for Pyrmont – a historic suburb of old warehouses, terraces and public housing once home to dock workers – to be developed.

The developer group Urban Task Force to the Transport and Tourism Forum, representing infrastructure construction companies, have chimed in, providing an echo chamber of pro-development support.

So let’s go with the simple theory first: Star is really angry because it thought it had this one in the bag. The Tele is running the Star’s arguments prominently because the Star is a big advertiser in the tabloid.

Jones is on board because he generally supports development, and then there’s the old rugby fraternity. The chairman of the Star, John O’Neill, was chairman of the Rugby Union and Jones was once the coach of the Wallabies. O’Neill once sued Jones but sources say they are on better terms now. Perhaps Star’s media guy, Peter Jenkins, a former rugby union writer, played a role in patching up relations.

Then there are the billions of gambling dollars at stake.

The Star needs this five-star hotel to compete with Crown Resorts, whose 271m six-star high-roller casino, hotel and apartment building is rising at Barangaroo and due for completion in 2021.

High rollers won’t travel across Pyrmont bay to gamble if they are staying at Crown or a city hotel, so not having equivalent digs would be very bad for the Star.

Specifically, what’s riled the Star is that it held a design competition in line with government guidelines in 2016, and the judging panel included the government architect, Peter Poulet. It selected a design with plans for a 237m tower at the Pyrmont site designed by internationally acclaimed architect Richard Francis Jones.

This is despite the local environmental plan for Pyrmont setting a maximum height of 28m and Star being told by the planning department in the past that the government would not tolerate the historic suburb being taken over by the casino.

But a design competition is not planning approval – even if the government architect plays a role.

The planning process only began in 2018, and it followed the usual path: exhibition, a period for submissions and a chance for the proponent to make changes in light of the feedback. Then the department did what it is required to do: make a recommendation, before referring it to the Independent Planning Commission for decision.

This is how the NSW system works. It’s designed to take the politics and any potential for corruption out of the system – unlike the old system under Labor where the minister approved major developments.

In this case the department recommended refusal – and on the face of it, it’s hardly surprising. The height limit in Pyrmont is 28m; the City of Sydney was vehemently opposed; and the Star had been told during past expansions that it would not be permitted to engulf the historic suburb.

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Rob Stokes’s political mistake – if there was one – was to have voiced a view that the department got it right. Perhaps the previous minister, Anthony Roberts, had a different view and made it known to Star – we do not know – but the point is neither minister gets to decide, and rightly so.

Then there are the darker theories about what’s driving the attacks on Stokes, who is widely seen as one of two among the senior figures in the moderates who could succeed Gladys Berejiklian.

According to several insiders within the moderate faction, a deal was struck before the last election for an orderly transition of the leadership some time in the middle of this term.

The theory goes that moderate convener Matt Kean has agreed to support right winger and treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, for premier in exchange for becoming his deputy.

Perrottet would be divisive even among the right. He’s very socially conservative – he opposed legalising abortion in NSW, declaring he could not support laws that stopped “the beating heart of an unborn child” – and he’s an economic dry.

Whether the bulk of the moderates would support Kean’s plan is a source of endless chatter. Most of the older moderates just want Berejiklian to stay. Others say they cannot understand why the moderates, who comfortably control the NSW division of the Liberals, would hand the main prize to the right.

There are at least two moderate frontbenchers who would lay claim to the leadership: the transport minister, Andrew Constance, and Stokes.

So, let’s come back to the Star and its $500m project.

Is the Tele taking aim at Stokes as it seeks to be the kingmaker in a forthcoming battle for the premier’s job?

You be the judge.

Here’s what the Telegraph reported the day after Stokes announced his department had recommended against the Star.

“A split has formed in the Berejiklian cabinet over the planning department’s sensational rejection of a $500m Ritz Carlton tower at Pyrmont, amid concerns it signals a U-turn on city development.”

Treasurer Dominic Perrottet went on radio yesterday morning to lay the foundations for the premier or the government to walk back the position. “I would obviously like to see the development go ahead,” he said.

That put him squarely at odds with planning minister Rob Stokes, who yesterday defended the retro decision.

What Berejiklian makes of an early retirement plan is unclear. Her office declined to comment. With a resounding win in March she could easily decide she has a mandate from the people. And while there are reasons to criticise her – the late light rail project and a bungled contract for the Allianz stadium rebuild being two examples – she can look forward to a series of good news ribbon cuttings in the next four years.