Developer hands LNP $100k donation two months after prime land deal
A family trust linked to developer Lancini Property Group has handed the LNP a six-figure donation, just two months after being awarded rights to prime state-owned waterfront land in Brisbane.
Electoral Commission of Queensland disclosure logs reveal the Lancini Family Discretionary Trust’s $100,000 donation, declared on Thursday, was the single biggest contribution to the party since the Crisafulli government scrapped the state’s developer donation ban.
In September, Deputy Premier Jarrod Bleijie announced 13 luxury towers, housing up to 5000 people, would be built on the site as part of a residential mixed-use precinct.
Economic Development Queensland selected five separate developers, including Lancini Property Group, to develop the six-hectare site, expected to include 2200 units, a shopping centre, hotel, childcare facility and medical services.
Under the previous Labor government, the Hamilton precinct was earmarked to be the Brisbane 2032 Olympic and Paralympic Games athletes’ village.
That vision was scrapped when the new LNP government accepted the Games Independent Infrastructure and Co-ordination Authority recommendation that “alternative site assessments” be explored.
Lancini Property Group chairman Laurence Lancini sits on the GIICA board and has previously told The Australian his Hamilton interests were on the authority’s conflict of interest register.
Defending the contribution to the LNP, Lancini Property Group chief executive Tomas Lancini said the family was “supporting the party that is supporting Queensland’s growth”.
Labor opposition housing spokeswoman Meaghan Scanlon said the donation raised serious questions for the Crisafulli government.
“Every Queenslander should question why a property developer has donated $100,000 to the LNP right after being gifted publicly owned land by the state government,” she said.
“The LNP continue to put the interests of their property developer mates over the interests of Queenslanders – Queenslanders who are struggling to afford the basics.
“This is exactly the kind of situation the Crime and Corruption Commission raised concerns with.”
There is no suggestion of wrongdoing, illegality, or that the donation had any bearing on the government’s procurement decision.
“Economic Development Queensland is completely separate to GIICA and conducted an independent and rigorous process to select the five proponents who’ll transform Hamilton’s riverfront into a thriving precinct, instead of Labor’s unfunded plan to build an athletes’ village,” a Crisafulli government spokesperson said on Saturday.
“We delivered on the position we took to the election to level the playing field for political donations, and Queenslanders voted for it after they saw through Labor’s disgraceful scare campaigns, which were bankrolled by the violent and misogynistic CFMEU.”
The previous Labor government banned developer donations in 2017, but the LNP reversed that ban in March to end what Attorney-General Deb Frecklington described as an “electoral financial gerrymander from the former Labor government” which benefited from union donations.
More:
KioskNews shows a cleaned-up reading view extracted from the publisher’s page — the original always lives on their site, not ours.