Outgoing Premier Mike Baird ordered the fast-tracking of a "planning pathway" for public parkland at Cooks Cove after broadcaster Alan Jones wrote to him about a push by prominent property developer John Boyd to develop the area.
Fairfax Media can reveal Mr Jones emailed Mr Baird on September 9, 2014, just months after he became Premier, about an "unsolicited proposal" by Mr Boyd, whose $60 million Sydney penthouse apartment was the site of a rapprochement between Mr Jones and Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull during the 2016 federal election campaign.
The unsolicited proposal from Mr Boyd – a friend of the late Kerry Packer – was to develop 80 hectares of the Cooks Cove precinct by building housing on Kogarah Golf Course, which would be relocated to nearby Crown land under a long-term lease with the government.
Under the government's unsolicited proposals guidelines the government may agree to deal exclusively with one company if it has a unique project.
Mr Baird responded by letter on September 22 saying that a high-level government steering committee had found Mr Boyd's proposal "did not meet the criteria for an unsolicited proposal and did not warrant direct dealing with Mr Boyd or Kogarah Golf Club".
However, in the letter, obtained under freedom of information laws, he told Mr Jones he had written to the government developer, Urban Growth Development Corporation, about plans for the area.
Mr Baird said he had "asked them to work expeditiously with the Kogarah Golf Club, WestConnex Delivery Authority, Rockdale Council and other stakeholders to finalise a planning pathway to ensure that the optimum future use of the site is achieved in a timely manner".
Mr Baird hand wrote on his letter to Mr Jones: "Let's catch up on return" – a reference to the Premier's return from a trek with disadvantaged youths in northern Australia.
The following February Mr Baird met with John Boyd Properties, Kogarah Golf Club and then Liberal MP for Rockdale John Flowers for an "update on Cooks Cove", ministerial diary extracts show.
In December last year, Cook Cove Inlet Pty Ltd, a subsidiary of John Boyd Properties, lodged a $100 million development application with the Bayside Council, which has been formed from the merger of Rockdale and Botany Bay councils.
A spokesman for outgoing Premier Mike Baird says there is "no suggestion" Mr Baird has interfered in the planning process regarding the development at Kogarah Golf Course.
The story, Mike Baird, Alan Jones and the $100m development appeared originally in The Sydney Morning Herald
