Discretion: The Better Part of Valour
Will old political allegiances define Shoalhaven's new era of development?
by Cat Holloway
One week ago, Andrew Constance became the new CEO of Shoalhaven City Council. Within days, the Office of Local Government announced it would investigate the appointment.
Only time will tell if the naysayers are correct that Andrew Constance is too politically motivated and not professionally skilled enough to be the revolutionary CEO that Shoalhaven Council so desperately needs to avoid administration.
But right now, Andrew Constance has a massive PR problem.
The pressure on Mr Constance to perform his duties confidently and assure the staff and public of his capacity must be immense.
I'd say there's no way I could handle it. But actually, for an annual salary of $400,000 plus, I'd probably give it a red hot go. I did run a sport tuck-shop once.
All week I kept hoping that Andrew Constance would use his considerable political smarts and come out with a public statement to win us over and dampen at least some of the loud social and mainstream media outrage over claims of Liberal Party and Shoalhaven Independents Group (SIG) cronyism.
But now he's a public service manager, Constance has to be really careful about his public profile, as stipulated in the Local Government Code of Conduct that applies to all staff of Shoalhaven Council – especially the CEO.
That's why Council has a highly-trained media and communications team of gatekeepers whose job it is to manage information that flows from Council to the public, ensuring words are carefully chosen and actions are not rash or risky to the reputation of the institution.
If I earned a six-figure salary preparing Andrew Constance to be Shoalhaven's CEO – or if I was a Mayor whose CEO recruitment process was about to be investigated – I would urge Andrew Constance to do one quick, simple thing:
Hide your Facebook friend list!
Call me conservative, but I wouldn't want people talking about Constance being connected on Facebook to former NSW MP John Sidoti, who was suspended from Parliament in 2022 for development corruption.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) found "Sidoti engaged in serious corrupt conduct by using his official position, as a member of Parliament and the local member for Drummoyne, to try to improperly influence City of Canada Bay Council (CCBC) Liberal councillors to adopt and advance certain positions in relation to the Five Dock town centre that would benefit his family’s property interests in the area.
The ICAC found Mr Sidoti asked Liberal councillors to relax planning controls surrounding the redevelopment of the Five Dock town centre so that three properties his family owned could benefit from development potential.
Astonishingly, that case remains unresolved in the criminal justice system.
In that same year, Gareth Ward, another of Andrew Constance's Facebook friends, was suspended over indecent and sexual assault charges.
He is currently in prison awaiting sentencing but remains one of Andrew Constance's 964 publicly visible Facebook "friends" as of today, October 6.
John Barilaro is another of Constance's ex-politico FB friends. Barilaro is still job hunting after he withdrew from his role as NSW Trade Commissioner to the Americas, stating that his position had become untenable due to the intense media scrutiny that his appointment had received.
Mr Barilaro created the role in 2020 when he was the Liberal trade minister.
Unsurprisingly, Constance's Facebook network includes many other Liberal Party luminaries such as Joanna Gash, Shelley Hancock, Mark Speakman, Barnaby Joyce, and Rachel Merton.
Failed conservative independent candidate Matthew Camenzuli is there too.
Constance "follows" hard-right Liberal faction MP, Andrew Hastie, outspoken retired Liberal MP, Christopher Pyne, and Mike Baird who, upon becoming the Liberal NSW Premier, reshuffled the ministry to promote Andrew Constance to NSW Treasurer.
Although he has reportedly resigned from the Liberal Party, other Liberals – and the Liberal Party page – are still on his Facebook follow list, alongside ousted UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson.
Constance's Shoalhaven Liberal and SIG friends include Cr Jason Cox, Cr Peter Wilkins, Paul Ell and Luke Sikora. It's possible Constance counts Labor and Green representatives as friends, but I didn't recognise any names on his Facebook profile.
A number of councillors in other regions are FB friends, which makes perfect sense, and shows that Andrew Constance does have familiarity with the local government scene.
But maybe he should have learned from one of his many prudent Facebook friends, such as Kiama Council CEO Jane Stroud, who keeps her social media friend list private.
I am not saying that having a strong network of contacts and friends is bad.
But if Andrew Constance wants people to believe that he is ready to let go of his political past and transform into an unbiased professional bureaucrat, his public Facebook profile is not a good look and he should have dealt with that well before he applied for the job.
Even university graduates, competing hard in a demanding job market, know to audit their social media presence, check privacy settings, upload a clear professional profile image and scrub their digital footprint of controversial content before hitting the "apply" button.
Perhaps the most significant Facebook friend of Andrew Constance is property developer and former Shoalhaven Council employee, Matt Philpott, the director of land speculation company, Sealark, owned by one of Shoalhaven's largest private landowners, The Halloran Trust.
Among the most difficult decisions Shoalhaven's new CEO will need to oversee, and advise councillors about, will be Mr Philpott's large and extremely contentious proposed subdivisions in Culburra Beach and Callala Bay.
Long before I started Spark Shoalhaven, my family became supporters of the community campaign to save Callala's "Glider Forest" from a proposed 380-lot subdivision for which Sealark gained residential rezoning in 2022 from the Liberal State government.
At the time, more than 1000 public submissions from individuals and organisations – 97.4% of the total, in fact – opposed that rezoning and urged that the threatened habitat be protected.
Constance's former Liberal state government colleague, Planning Minister Anthony Roberts, ignored every one of those public submissions and rezoned the entire forest anyway, exactly as Sealark had asked.
Our community group, Callala Matters, advocates for sustainable planning of our unique village so that its core character as a nature refuge and tourism destination is maintained for residents and visitors, as well as for future generations of people, flora and fauna.
This has put Callala's community up against the might of Sealark and the $100+ million Halloran Trust.
Sealark and Halloran claim "to deliver a nature positive outcome to the environment", but so far refuse to meet with Callala Matters about the community's sustainable growth vision, climate resilience needs and endangered species protection.
The previous Shoalhaven Council withdrew its application for Sealark's biodiversity certification and then voted to ask the State government to reverse the residential zoning and conserve the Glider Forest.
However, this current Council overturned that decision and opted against a conservation Planning Proposal, leaving the potential development approval in the hands of the State.
The 40 hectares in question include mature hollow-bearing trees that are home to populations of four vulnerable native glider species including endangered Greater Gliders, as well as endangered Gang-gang Cockatoos and Bauers' Midge Orchids.
Even if Sealark does succeed in progressing its plan, the fine details of that subdivision application will still come before Shoalhaven Council and it will need to recognise public anger and legal queries over clearing Callala's unique forest under a complicated and flawed Biodiversity Offset Scheme.
Biodiversity offsets are designed to be claimed only after developers first avoid and then minimise damage – a legislated hierarchy of obligations often ignored by governments rushing to roll out the red carpet for developers.
But Halloran/Sealark have apparently made no effort to avoid or minimise the destruction planned in Callala.
Sealark’s own biodiversity certification application admitted that the plan to bulldoze forest for the Callala subdivision would result in “a complete loss of all biodiversity values” for 38 hectares.
The biocert application claimed the deaths of thousands of animals and the loss of healthy, unburned coastal habitat would be offset on 'biobank' land that the Halloran Trust owns, but could not develop anyway.
An internal Shoalhaven Council expert review of that biocert process recommended Sealark's subdivision plan "should not be supported".
If only those quiet, canopy-dwelling gliders had the kind of friends in high places that Andrew Constance and Matt Philpott have.
Perhaps Constance's own personally traumatic experience during the 2020 Black Summer bushfires, and his recent public comments that the Liberal Party should become "pro-environment", will inform his managing of such massive decisions about Shoalhaven's future?
In fact, it should be the science, the law and the community that defines the outcome, rather than any personal or business agenda of the CEO or Mayor.
Maybe Andrew Constance and his public relations advisors in Shoalhaven Council are not bothered by perceived political, criminal and commercial associations?
If that's the case, you've got to give them credit for being transparent.
But with so much public angst over the months since his shortlisting for CEO was confirmed, if Mr Constance wanted the public and his staff to give him the benefit of the doubt, he could have displayed a little discretion amid all that valour.
Dissent over Constance being awarded the $400,000-plus annual contract, cites his notable lack of any educational qualifications or work experience in any local government organisation, let alone in a top executive position.
Constance's extensive political background is the public's pressing worry.
His Liberal and SIG supporters naturally welcome him taking the reins and expect he will enjoy a harmonious relationship with Mayor Patrica White, who has known Constance for 25 years and campaigned for him during his two failed tilts at the Federal seat of Gilmore.
Spark Shoalhaven
Local political blogger, Stephen Prothero, examined unusual job description language in the CEO applicant pack reflecting the Mayor's desire for a "strong commercial focus":
"...networking with government and the private sector, to help grow the Shoalhaven and encourage investment in the local economy."
and
"You will bring a commercial minded/outlook – to be a good budget manager but also an ability to discuss investment with investors and bring a “can-do” attitude to helping investment in the City. We want something to happen…."
Mayor White has had a hard time getting along with a CEO during her year in office.
She differed over the staff restructure plan with the previous CEO Robyn Stevens, who, according to several reliable sources, was pressured by Mayor White and SIG councillors to depart her position before this Council was even sworn in.
James Ruprai was SIG's favoured council executive (according to emails between the party councillors well before Ms Stevens departed) and Mayor White immediately installed Ruprai as acting CEO.
But relations seemed to sour between Ruprai and White and he withdrew from the CEO applicant list in July.
Shoalhaven Mayor Patricia White is not currently among Andrew Constance's Facebook network. But many believe their friendship runs deeper than that.
