In a statement to The Age on Thursday afternoon, Mr Wood, the federal member for La Trobe, confirmed that Ms Halsall had resigned following her naming in Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission hearings. Mr Wood denied Ms Halsall had run the campaign from his office. Former Liberal state MP Lorraine Wreford arrives on Wednesday at IBAC's hearings into land dealings at Casey Council. Credit:Eddie Jim Ms Halsall refused to comment and did not return calls. On Thursday morning former Victorian Liberal MP turned lobbyist Lorraine Wreford was grilled for a second day before the commission.

Ms Wreford admitted on Thursday that she had been a key part of a $100,000 strategy – funded by Mr Woodman – to run a group of candidates in a bid to seek control of the council in 2016. Mr Woodman wanted a "friendly" council so that he could influence planning decisions in his or his clients' favour – in order to make profits of millions of dollars. John Woodman after Tueday's IBAC hearing. Credit:Justin McManus Responding to questions from counsel assisting IBAC, Michael Tovey, QC, Ms Wreford agreed that the campaign was an “undisclosed and covert operation”. She confirmed the campaign was managed by Janet and Robert Halsall.

Ms Halsall, a former Casey mayor, has been a staffer in Mr Wood’s office. His federal electorate of La Trobe covers a large swath of Melbourne's south-east – one of the nation's fastest growing areas – including some of the Casey Council area. "[The campaign] was definitely designed so that the candidates didn’t know where the money was coming from," Ms Wreford said. Payments were made to Chelsea business The Mattress Shop – owned by Mr Halsall – by Spicer Thoroughbreds, a horse-breeding company where Ms Wreford’s boyfriend worked. During Thursday’s hearing, Mr Tovey showed Ms Wreford an invoice for $4000 paid by Spicer Thoroughbreds. The invoice was for items including an “Astro ensuite, Miami Mattress and a headboard”.

Asked if it was in fact “ designed to cover another payment for council elections”, Ms Wreford said: “I would agree with you ... It was definitely designed so that the candidates did not know where the money was coming from.” Ms Wreford was the MP for the state seat of Mordialloc from 2010 to 2014 and a former Casey mayor. She told Thursday's hearing that the strategy to take over Casey council with candidates friendly to Mr Woodman was proposed by another former Liberal mayor, Sam Aziz. The idea was to withhold information from candidates about who was funding their campaigns, Ms Wreford said. A surveillance photo taken by IBAC investigators of councillor Sam Aziz meeting former Liberal Party MP Lorraine Wreford in a city cafe. She later gave him cash she acknowledged was a bribe. Credit:IBAC At least five of the candidates were elected: Cr Aziz, former state Liberal candidates and mayors Geoff Ablett and Amanda Stapledon, Liberal activist Damien Rosario and Wayne Smith.

IBAC has also heard separately that Mr Woodman helped fund the 2016 council campaign of former LIberal MP Gary Rowe and Labor-linked councillor Tim Jackson. Their election made a clear majority of the 11 Casey councillors recipients of Mr Woodman's largesse. The extent of the disclosure of this financial assistance is under a serious cloud. The hearings are part of IBAC’s Operation Sandon, the most significant probe into alleged planning-related corruption in Victoria in decades. It is examining land deals made in Melbourne’s sprawling south-east. The operation is focussed on issues uncovered by The Age and The Sunday Age dating back to 2011, and including major revelations in October and November 2018.

Documents tendered to the hearing showed that Tom Kenessey, who was then a senior figure with construction giant Leighton were involved in the planning of Mr Woodman and Cr Aziz’s 2016 council campaign. Mr Woodman was working with Leighton on a concerted campaign to win council and state support for a rezoning of land in Cranbourne West that would have delivered a $100 million windfall to Leighton (since renamed CIMIC) and millions to Mr Woodman. On Wednesday at the IBAC hearings, Ms Wreford was forced to admit she personally delivered tens of thousands of dollars of cash stuffed into envelopes to Cr Aziz. She also conceded the payments were bribes to get favourable planning decisions, after being recorded in various discussions with Cr Aziz and Mr Woodman. Loading Replay Replay video Play video Play video During Thursday's hearings, a wire tap was played of conversations recorded last October between Ms Wreford and Cr Aziz. The conversations reveal both the councillor and Ms Wreford referring to Mr Woodman as the "blood donor".

Loading In one taped conversation, Cr Aziz asks that Mr Woodman – "the blood donor" – make his secret payments to the councillor in cash, because it was affecting the amount of child maintenance he was having to pay. The wire tape shows Cr Aziz said: "I'm just wondering if you could talk to the blood donor and, ah, just in terms of [my] monthly cosultancy fee, ask if it’s possible to [pay me] cash, because it’s causing me all sorts of trouble with child maintenance." Ms Wreford replied: "Yep, yep, OK I will talk to him, probably it won't be until tomorrow." During a second wire tap played, also from October 2018 during the vote for mayor of Casey, Ms Wreford discusses who will become deputy mayor. In that conversation, Ms Wreford also refers to Mr Woodman as “the blood donor”.

After Cr Aziz votes within council for mayor and deputy, Ms Wreford says: “That’s good, because we should have the numbers. So we can pick and choose who the deputy is going to be.” Mr Wrecord goes on to say that, now that Mr Woodman would control the numbers on the council, “that just means the blood donor can sleep at night”. “Of course he can,” Cr Aziz says in agreement.