‘Queensland Deputy Premier Jeff Seeney used his ministerial powers to rezone a privately-owned caravan park on the Sunshine Coast against the wishes of the local council and the advice of his own department. Experts said the eleventh-hour move was highly unusual and compared it to controversial interventions in local planning decisions by ministers in the Bjelke-Petersen government of the early 1980s. A senior source at Sunshine Coast Regional Council told the ABC the move had “added several million dollars to the value of the land at the stroke of a pen”. (ABC National, 10.11.14).
Menu