IBAC Finds Councillors Accepted Inducements for Votes

As key figures plan on recontesting roles in Victoria’s local government elections, Victoria’s Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission (IBAC) has released a report outlining their findings from Operation Leo. 

Operation Leo was started in May 2023 due to allegations that the president of the Essendon Royals Soccer Club (ERSC) intended to influence the Moonee Valley City Council councillors with financial inducement in return for favourable decisions for the ERSC. 

There were two main allegations. 

The first was that the ERSC president intended to bribe former mayor and councillor Cameron Nation and two other councillors through an associate, a construction manager, to allow the ERSC preferential access to sports facilities and key infrastructure funding.

That allegation was followed by a second one that councillors assisted with the property development and rezoning of several properties owned by the construction manager. 

Allegations that councillors had received other benefits from the ERSC to ensure certain council decisions were also investigated. 

“IBAC found that some Moonee Valley City Council councillors used their positions to inappropriately influence Moonee Valley City Council decisions in favour of third parties and at the expense of other local sporting groups and the wider municipality,” the report said. 

Operation Leo involved four witness interviews and six witnesses in private examinations in February 2024 as well as eight search warrants and one summons. 

“IBAC identified that some councillors contravened their obligations by failing to follow proper processes, not declaring conflicts of interest, not declaring gifts and hospitality and not reporting suspected corrupt conduct,” IBAC Commissioner Victoria Elliott said.

▲ The Essendon Royals Soccer Club whose president and board officials have been found to have influenced council voting through bribes by IBAC.

Drugs exchanged for favours

IBAC found that Nation was introduced to the construction manager through another business associate in 2020 and that during 2020 to 2022, he directly progressed property-related applications for the construction manager in exchange for cocaine and the sedative Xanax. 

Nation was also found to have helped the construction manager with updating a business’s parking bay signage allowing shorter timing restrictions and increased turnover for the business that was owned by relatives of the construction manager. 

IBAC referenced messages between Nation, the business associate and the construction manager offering an exchange of the parking bay signage change for cocaine. 

In June 2021, Nation also queried and escalated a planning application, again in exchange for cocaine, that the construction manager submitted for a project with townhouses that was owned by his relative.

He was also involved in trying to progress other planning application matters including an instance in March 2021 where he shared site plans with the business associate for a vacant lot claiming that increasing height restrictions for a project would be an easy fix.

In May 2021, IBAC found Nation messaged the construction manager referring to needing to talk to council staff in person about whether planning approvals and permits were needed for a shop on the same site, in order to avoid a paper trail. 

The construction manager also offered cocaine to Nation in December 2021 to support a planning application for another project that a planner was raising floodplain guideline concerns about. 

IBAC was unable to determine what the result of this offer was but was able to determine that Nation used his position as mayor and councillor to his own benefit in exchange for drugs and intentionally failed to declare conflicts of interest. 

▲ Councillor Jacob Bettio is re-contesting the Moonee Valley City Council.

ERSC influencing votes

Nation, another former mayor and current Councillor Narelle Sharpe and Councillor Jacob Bettio also used their positions to favour the ERSC several times despite failing to declare gifts, hospitality and conflicts of interest between 2021 and 2023, IBAC found.

It was initially alleged that during this period a councillor discussed payments from the ERSC of $15,000 to $50,000 for the votes and advocacy for the ERSC but IBAC found that non-monetary inducements were made to and accepted by the councillors instead.

The council resolved to commission a report in March, 2021 on potentially realigning sports fields at Ormond Park to ensure fair and equitable access for all tenants but it meant the ERSC would lose access to the grounds for junior games and reduce the area available for senior player games. 

ERSC then proposed accessing the Cross Keys Reserve 45 weeks each year to allow year-round access. 

IBAC found evidence that Councillors Narelle Sharpe, Nation and Jacob Bettio were involved in several discussions outside of council meetings with ERSC officials about making a deal, including at a dinner paid for by the ERSC officials and in pushing through amendments to the proposal that were beneficial to the ERSC.

Neither the relationships or the dinner engagement were disclosed by the councillors. 

The ERSC also hosted another event on March 11, 2023 with more councillors present and discussed Fairbarn Park as an option to provide the ERSC with more soccer pitches. 

ERSC Membership cards were gifted to Bettio and Sharpe valued at $250 each.

Bettio then suggested reallocating $300,000 intended for the JH Allan reserve to Fairbarn park during a budget meeting.

Two days later, the ERSC president hosted another dinner with Sharpe, Bettio, Nation and two other councillors and sought support for exclusive access to Cross Keys Reserve, with the other two councillors opting to leave the event. 

Nation also proposed an amendment to the Moonee Valley City Council’s Draft Community Facilities Report to circumvent opposition from council staff in granting ERSC priority access to pavilions during the summer. 

Former three-time mayor Sharpe and Bettio have both told IBAC they were unaware of their obligations to declare gifts such as the membership cards with Sharpe telling the media the report has cleared her of any wrongdoing. 

“Although some evidence heard demonstrated a poor understanding for policy obligations, IBAC is not satisfied that the failures to declare gifts, hospitality and conflicts of interest were due simply to a lack of awareness or consideration,” the report said.

“The evidence rather suggests that failures to disclose conflicts of interest and gifts were more likely the result of intentional efforts to conceal such conflicts and relationships by councillors.”

Sharpe consistently denied any wrongdoing during IBAC examinations and disagreed that there were any conflicts of interest.

IBAC’s report says that Sharpe had repeatedly not disclosed conflicts of interest including an 18-month relationship with the ERSC president, accepted gifts without disclosure and had not reported suspicious conduct for want of “not getting involved”.

The council’s code of conduct policy states that councillors should not act in ways that imply particular parties are trying to gain influence over council matters and decisions. 

▲ Three-time former Moonee Valley City Council mayor Narelle Sharpe has denied any wrongdoing.

Potential bribery scheme

IBAC also found that the construction manager and the ERSC president discussed bribing councillors for favourable votes. 

Possible bribes discussed ranged from $15,000 to $50,000 to be split between Nation and two other councillors with an additional $10,000 for the construction manager for his role as a middleman. 

In April 2023, IBAC intercepted a phone call where Nation and another councillor were alleged to have requested payment to secure a third councillor’s vote at a May 2023 meeting. 

Nation was mayor from October 2020 to October 2021 and resigned as a councillor in March 2024. 

Sharpe is currently serving as the deputy mayor and Bettio is still on council—both are recontesting at the local elections.

An IBAC spokesperson told The Urban Developer that releasing the report was intended to expose how the local government processes could be undermined. 

“This highlights the importance of progressing systems reforms to address the risk of councillors misusing their positions as elected officials and undermining public trust,” the IBAC spokesperson said.

“IBAC is currently in the process of reviewing the evidence to determine whether to refer matters to the Director of Public Prosecutions.”