Is WA Inc back? The WA Govt has ignored a corruption report while rolling a local council which opposed property developers exploiting nature reserves. What’s the scam with the big pile-on in the West?
Nedlands City Mayor, Fiona Argyle, has been slammed in the WA media for being “Hamas”, woke ABC, “heartless” and now, in one of the silliest Kerry Stokes media videos you could ever see, linked to pedophiles Jeffrey Epstein and Prince Andrew.
That is because she opposed property developers building a hospice on land of which the Nedlands council has stewardship (they could have built the hospice anywhere but this is prime coast land). And now the state government, in cahoots with the property developers, has rolled the local council.
The real story is how the state and property developer aligned media in the West failed to mention a recent report tabled by the Auditor General to the WA Parliament titled, ‘Report 16: 2024-25 Fraud risks in Land Transactions by Development WA‘.
Development WA is a State government entity.
‘This OAG forensic audit found that the WA Government owned DevelopmentWA in selling and developing land:
- sells our state owned land to developers for less than its value
- has process irregularities that may indicate fraud, corruption or misconduct
- cannot demonstrate value for money from public land sales
- has questionable checks and balances
- does not have supporting documentation for over 30% of 242 reviewed sales
- sold land at unapproved sale price 50% lower than most recent valuation
- disclosed insufficient details relating to conflicts of interest, gifts, benefits, invitations and hospitality.
There you have it – Hamas, Epstein and Prince Andrew are in the West Australian newspaper mix … and an attack on a progressive mayor, but no investigation of political corruption in WA.
Here are the questions MWM put to the Minister Hannah Beasley (no response as yet):
Heartless! Property developers, press and politicians in cahoots to roll council
Michael West established Michael West Media in 2016 to focus on journalism of high public interest, particularly the rising power of corporations over democracy. West was formerly a journalist and editor with Fairfax newspapers, a columnist for News Corp and even, once, a stockbroker.