Mystery developments in beachside towns: How business is booming for the Obeids | Four Corners

any regrets sir ob how do you feel about it? mr aveda was worried about going to jail 18 days ago one of australia's most famous corrupt politicians was jailed for the second time this afternoon the destruction of eddie obed's career and reputation was complete a judge sentenced him to three years and 10 months Former New South Wales Labor Minister Eddie Obede was found guilty of conspiring to rig a lucrative mining tender for the benefit of his family. I am convinced that the objective severity of the conspiracy was one of the highest in the disgraced labor power. Trader Eddie Obede punished for a mining license conspiracy that generated a $30 million windfall for the Obed family.

The $30 million from that criminal settlement is still in the hands of the Obed family companies and they owe millions more in court costs and unpaid bills. taxes even though this

business

for the Obed family has really been better, excellent, they are still in private schools, they are still in their luxury homes, they are still living their wealthy lifestyles, it doesn't seem to have had any negative impact at all . As far as I can tell and understand, everything remains the same. The Obedies are cashing in on the property boom along Australia's east coast, backing a number of

developments

, some openly and others secretly.

Nobody wanted to talk about it. Everyone was simply evasive. It became a

mystery

novel. The Obed family's

developments

threaten a way of life that residents fight to preserve. Residents are already fed up with big developers who come from out of town with lots of money and will never live here. and I really want to make more money if I see a development happening there it will just ruin me I just can't believe it and it's not something I would do it's not something I agree with it's not part of me it's not part of my culture and it hurts me Knowing that this is going to happen, what would happen if I told you that the Obedie family is Eddie Obede and his children are behind that development?

Well, that is shocking, it is absolutely shocking, tonight in the

four

corners

we expose obedience. secret property developments along the coast, we investigate the tactics they use to push their projects and how they target Aboriginal-owned land and reveal that they are the secret backers of a 100 million apartment complex that could change this strip of coast forever. An hour and a half north of Sydney is the sleepy seaside village of Hawke's Nest, with a population of 1,200, there are a handful of shops and not much else. It is a vacation city. Former Prime Minister John Howard and his family spent summers here.

People who come here aren't really looking for that glitz and glamor they come here because they love nature and they love to walk they love to swim they love to boat they like to kayak um all that stuff lorna russom has run the surf shop on the street main for 30 years this is his family back in the 80's when they first moved here the reason we moved here was because our family lived here and we used to come on vacation and we really enjoyed it because the place was so untouched that was absolutely untouched freedom, the place has hardly changed, but these sun-bleaching huts and expanses of virgin bushland are now the main focus of the developers.

It is a coastal city, it is small. I don't think anyone is really thinking that it's never going to change and it's not going to develop and it's not going to. to attract more people and you're not going to get more infrastructure, I think the concern is that we want proper development and proper infrastructure, not a cash grab to get the maximum square footage you can get. Shane Andrews moved to Hawke's Nest 13 years ago with his partner Kathy Poldmar and bought a house Kathy grew up here. I came back to the city when I was 30 and moved here because I was ready to settle down.

I had been traveling and this is my hometown so it has this. beautiful character and feel and the people are beautiful and the way it is also coming to light, they started a Facebook page to keep the community up to date with developments before the council on the road, it is not coming out, there is a development in process that has them really worried and now they are going to build a giant bunch of units. The biggest concern is being able to see it from the beach. There is a large ominous building or development there. You can't see anything from that beach now.

We are going to build basically

four

-story Gold Coast style apartments, it will change that visual impact on the beach. This is the unspoilt stretch of coastline that will be transformed with plans to build 140 apartments, making it the largest development in the area and the First, directly on the beachfront, so this is one of the first proposals. Yes, for development. What do you think about that? I don't like it and I don't think the city will like it either. Why do not you like it? It looks like Sydney, it's too high, there are too many buildings there, yeah that's scary, people feel helpless because they have nothing to say.

I really feel like the council likes that in a lot of places the developers rule, that money rules and it's money first and you. know the people around you, second is the local celebrity. She lives on a property north of Hawke's Nest. She currently runs a free local newspaper to stay up to date with what's going on. Oh, thanks Brian, how many packages are you carrying this week? I am 10 years old. 10 this week oh really, yeah, okay, yeah, sure all my lovely volunteers come and pick up your parcels and drive all over the countryside delivering them because it's free, it goes to every

business

, every shop, every coffees.

Thanks, Di Morrissey has been trying to get. to the bottom of who is behind the development, he will be right, even the local council doesn't seem to know, well no one seemed to really know what was going on, no one wanted to talk about it, everyone was evasive. I've come. against some, let's say, rumors, but I have not been able to prove where they were connected, not everyone in Hawke's Nest is opposed to development, the local progress society and the chamber of commerce believe it is time for change, we can talk about development and the pressure that comes with houses, whether they are tall or short.

Len Roberts is the pastor of the Baptist church and has been on the local council for 20 years. This city has existed among tourists for the last 20 to 30 years. We need people to provide services and that development must be there. We can't stop it as much as I'd like to be selfish and close the door. um, and you know, build build gates on the highway and say don't come in. here we know we have to have them because unless we have the people we are not going to have the services no one cares real estate agent rick rate is a consultant on the controversial beach front development that is next to the golf club you feel? that will bring permanent residency to the city.

I see an acceptance on the part of golfers, but I also see beach lovers. As I understand it, the project is called Hawke's Nest Beachside and from what I hear from the developers, it will certainly be taken care of over the weekend. market exactly who is behind the development has been a well kept secret and who is the developer the developer is two people, they are two private companies, one lives in Sydney, the company is in Sydney and the other company resides in Port Macquarie, but that It is not like this. The whole story has taken us months, but we have discovered who the

mystery

sponsors are.

It is Obedience. You won't find their names publicly attached to the company and that's not unusual for this family, but we found documents that directly link two of Eddie Obede's children. jared and eddie jr to the project, what if i told the obedient family that their ediobeed was actually behind this? Well, I would be very surprised, however, I can't really comment on Angus because I have no knowledge that that name is well known to me as However, for many people that name has not crossed my desk in any way in my more than 40 years of active and active participation in helping developers.

Whatever the case, Obedience has a long history of trying to keep its name out of controversial projects. These tactics have been repeatedly exposed through multiple investigations by the New South Wales Independent Anti-Corruption Commission. How wonderful do you feel? your account operation is simple and direct and is used over and over again which is that you have your participation disguised or hidden for two dollars company with directors who are associates of the obedies but with a different surname was often insured below that level by trustees who love a bit of trust a discretionary trust in which these cooperating people agree to hold benefits in trust for the obed family that was owned and controlled by jeffrey watson helped uncover the dubious dealings of eddie obede and his family during sensational hearings before the anti-corruption watchdog this public inquiry will investigate whether there was corruption involved if it is corruption then it is corruption on a scale probably not surpassed since the rum core days in total hundreds of millions of dollars are involved hi edward moses obedient being elected and admitted to the executive council of your specialty in new south wales do you swear that i will be oiled to the best of my judgment at all times eddie Obede was a right wing kingmaker and member of the upper house of the new wales labor party of the South for 20 years during that time, Obed's name became synonymous with dubious deals.

Do you still maintain your innocence? Of course, innocent in all cases despite the findings against him in multiple corruption investigations it was not until late 2016 that the law caught up with eddie obede tonight locked up for at least three years former corrupt politician eddie obede is sent The prisoner served three years for misconduct after lobbying a senior public official for a better deal for a secretive family business that emerged just before Christmas 2019 to a joyous welcome at the Obedies Hunters Hill complex. The euphoria was short-lived when prosecutors began preparing a separate criminal case against him, his second son, Moses, and the former New South Wales mining minister. ian mcdonald was about a corrupt mining business in the bilong valley west of sydney the obedience bought a family farm in the bylong valley they seemed to have discovered that there was coal under the ground and set out to manipulate it by two means one was by using information privileged by the ministry and McDonald and urging him to create an exploration license over the area and then purchasing other properties that would be affected by the same order, the effectiveness of an exploration license is to increase the value of his land by three to four times . so it's like a windfall they were trading on that before it became public information the star witness at the ICAC hearings was Gardner Brooke, a former Lehman Brothers investment banker who advised the Obedies for almost two years.

Good day to you sir, a long day. a central player in the corrupt mining business before I became a crown witness, sir, against his family. uh, no comment, his testimony about obedience, access to inside information helped send father and son to jail. They produced maps for me at the second meeting at the Wentworth Hotel, which I have given ample evidence about, I mean, I didn't understand at the time that this was insider information, but it turns out that they knew exactly where the call was. I mean, his level of information was pretty amazing in retrospect, Gardner-brooke knows exactly how the Abed family does business, he started advising them in 2008, they told me that because, in his words, they are a famous political family, they wanted to stay in anonymity and in the background with respect to any commercial activity, so they were not seen under any name. a company look for the name I earned, you saw the law firm partner or you could see an accountant or you could see one of his associates, what kind of people do they use?

Only people who are close to the family and would do what they say. and they would be rewarded in whatever way they had agreed between them looking back, yes it was, it was very calculated and very deliberate and to a certain extent quite well done until the music stopped and you know they started. Under investigation, obedies are known for using trusts to hide their assets. The actual family burden structure is incredibly complicated and very tax efficient. Everything goes into a central trust fund and from there it is distributed to other trust funds so that, in effect, everything arrives.

Any of the participants, Eddie himself or his children, come as a gift under a trust and are not subject to tax. The ICAC found that obedience treats its business operation as a family unit where each individual acts for the benefit of the entire family. It works like a pyramid. Eddie Senior. I was inthe top and ultimately all decisions were made through him and he exercised final control. The actual day-to-day operations were distributed among his children and they worked together as a kind of team. There was Moses, he was really the CEO of the company. ob corporation as his name was he was the mover and shaker and deal maker and he had the ideas jarrod obede who seemed like a nice affable guy seemed to be more just an assistant a driver and things like that eddie ob junior had followed his own career and had arrived to the family business relatively late.

My experience was that the children were the ones who did the preliminary work, but it was all for his father. The obediences made $30 million from the corrupt mining deal that he has never had. One of the things I never understood at the end of the Mount Penny investigation was why the New South Wales government didn't act to try to recover the $30 million that had actually reached its destination. The obed family just don't understand why that hasn't happened it is very puzzling that the money should be recovered the four

corners

have followed the money and the trail leads here to the north coast of new south wales this is port macquarie where the obedience like to holiday icac discovered that in 2010 they used money from the corrupt mining deal to pay the deposit on a 1.1 million penthouse in this hotel on the water.

Obedience has had a proprietary interest in the Port Macquarie area for a long time. Indeed, Mr. obedient Mississippi. I think I spent a lot of time in an apartment on Main Street, it's in the Ridge Hotel. I have a feeling that when Mr. Obede got out of jail, he went there to spend his time and, frankly, I don't blame him. port macquarie has become the northern outpost of the family's property empire this is the public face of their property business the obedies are building a brand new suburb a 16 hectare development near lake cathay cat eye lake is a special area for me because it's a It's a particularly good place to surf and I spend a lot of time there.

It is a popular spot for surfers, including former NSW Coalition Deputy Premier Andrew Stoner. It was formerly wooded grassland, some grazing, but certainly no people. There are many birds and other wild animals. Now it looks like a desert, I mean, it's like ground zero. It almost makes you cry seeing what happened to that land. Andrew Stoner represented the area for 16 years and was in state parliament with Eddie Obede. I'd run into him from time to time in the elevators on the way to the divisions or stuff and he might nod at you, but he didn't really want to interact with anyone.

For me, his business was done behind closed doors. Obedience acquired the land near Lake Cathay. Former county chairman, the late John Abby Saab, later became mayor of Strathfield in western Sydney, but his career ended in disgrace after he was found to have lied to the New Wales corruption watchdog. south when mr. abby saab got involved in some financial matter. difficulty, Eddie Obed offered to help him financially and ended up in possession of that land. We looked at the large obedience land around Lake Cattai several times during our research. We analyze it on the various efforts made to have water and water for the city.

A culvert was introduced in that area which is far from the city and the road around the front was also improved. The ICAC investigated allegations that the Obedies bribed a New South Wales minister with a discounted car to benefit the family's business interests, including their land near Lake Cattai. The minister was acquitted, but the watchdog found that Moses had acted corruptly and his brother Paul had given false or misleading evidence. Despite the findings, a development application was approved in 2013 and the Abides have since sold more than 100 plots of land worth at least $30 million. What we will see is a lot of houses, a lot of people, a lot of vehicles on that land, so the way it has been effectively developed down to the ground makes us believe that the paradise we have had is almost like Paradise Lost and I don't think we will get it back. never.

Jared, Eddie O'beed's fourth son, now runs the development at Lake Cat Eye after moving to Port Macquarie in 2014. Jarrod Obede has been described as the gopher of the Jarrod family that I found. He was a very nice guy and diligently followed the instructions of his two older brothers. He was very enthusiastic about the Mount Penny Coal transaction. I heard that Jared Obede was in many of the key meetings about the corrupt coal business when Icac raided Obed family officials. in 2011 confidential government maps were found addressed to jarrod, in the end it was a pretty important part of the evidence showing early access illegal access to government documentation and what I remember is that it was marked very clearly that it was going to be collected by Gerardo B Jarrod Obede was questioned at ICAC about where the money to buy his $2.5 million house in Sydney came from and said he did not know the watchdog found his evidence about the corrupt coal business to be weak. reliable and incredible.

Cerrito Bead was not one of the main actors, but he was obviously there at many of the crucial events and no corrupt conduct was found against him, although there were some findings that he was involved in events that were themselves the subject of adverse findings. and, as I recall, he was described as an affected person, which is the ICAC's very polite way of saying that they were not willing to go so far as to determine corrupt conduct, although there is no evidence that the profits from the business of the coal were used in gerardo beads developments, there are questions about how obedience secured support for an apartment complex in Lake Cattail Four Corners has discovered 17 identical letters of support for the proposal from Obedies neighbors and associates, so in Lake Cat Eye there is a proposal for an apartment complex, a shopping precinct and a hotel. and there were six objections to the proposal and there were 17 letters of support here are some of the letters here they are all the same letter it's just a pro forma ah darcy lussic that's the footballer right yes, that's right one of the names on the letters is Darcy Lucic a rugby league player and a friend of the Obed family who owns a number of properties on Lake Catie.

He was investigated in 2015 after Obeds reportedly sold him an apartment at a reduced price in violation of the NRL salary cap. No action was taken against Lusik, another person whose name appears in one of the letters; he told us that he had never seen her before. It also has the same letter. It is as if the same person had completed the same letter but with different names. One of the letters of support we found was signed. By another Obed associate, Merwin Ibrahim, he grew up with Eddie Obi Jr and runs a tile business in Sydney. Ibrahim has become a key figure in the Obed family's growing real estate interests on the coast, what's up with that name, Moon Ibrahim, that's the guy proposing the development of Pacific Drive Merwin Ibrahim was a founding shareholder of a company called loras projects is now developing a controversial apartment block on pacific drive in port macquarie is also involved in the cat's eye development of obedience lake four corners has discovered that eddie ob junior is a consultant for loras projects what do you think of all this ? merwin ibrahim is one of the directors of the company that owns the land on pacific drive who has a da in the present is now signing for another da in lake caddy so these two the proposed developments come from the same place the latest development of the project de laura is a huge apartment complex planned for this site merwin ibrahim is the co-owner of the land and jarrod obede lives next door its proximity it is no coincidence that the abeed family is secretly backing this entire project the plan is for an apartment block of seven stories with 68 units laura's project manager told four corners the obed family has no involvement in the development and how they believe this development could change the area here the size ratio of the seven story tall building um and how that's going to impact on our um our way of living with noise and shadows is going to detract from the overall peaceful beauty of the area, I think it's just going to open doors for this to continue and very soon we'll all be watching will port macquarie look like like the golden coast with skyscrapers along the entire promenade here the neighbors have come together to fight the project the information we initially got was very limited so I started doing a little homework and I must say that, well, since Since we have been doing it, many things have caught our attention and we noticed that they worried us and we continued to investigate and meet. were shocked to discover that the council had held a confidential meeting in which they agreed to sell public land to the developers, the council later failed to mention the fact that one of the wells was probably the most important lot for this development to be possible. continuing was in fact the property of the council, so the council has a potentially vested interest in maximizing the value of any proposal that is approved for this area, which to me absolutely sucks.

Andrew Stoner lives next to the pacific drive development we as taxpayers will never know if the amount paid for that public land, the road reserve, was the best deal the council could have gotten because there was never any process, this was approved in a confidential council meeting, so it just doesn't smell good, the obedience's development ambitions don't stop at Port Macquarie or even Lake Cathay, the family has big plans along the New Wales coast of the South and they're targeting Aboriginal owned land so this is our community shed so that's where we have our meetings our members meetings meetings what about the groups here?

David Carroll is the chief executive of the Beerupai Local Aboriginal Land Council in Port Macquarie. They have a large number of outstanding claims on undeveloped land in the area. In June they invited him to lunch. by a development consultant three or four years ago we were contacted by a third party saying we have a developer who wants to meet with you to discuss development in Port Macquarie. them, his contact details, I said there were no problems, I could contact him all the time, so it was a phone call, let's schedule a time to have a meeting.

The consultant's name was Jason Irvine, he is another family friend and business partner of the Obeds. He was fired. As football coach of the Parramatta Eels rugby league club for his involvement in salary cap breaches, Jason Irvine had a proposal for the land council, they said they wanted to work to accelerate or facilitate the development of land for residential purposes and were interested in working with us and then they said to us: do you have things and ideas that you want to work with? David Carroll was surprised when Jason Irvine showed up at the meeting accompanied by Jared Obide.

Ediobee Jr was also invited but did not attend. What did you think of attending a meeting? with jared o'beed well at that point i didn't actually know the person's name so they didn't tell me after that when he said oh i got over it i paused and thought oh okay i just have to make sure everything we do is correct what was your impression of jarrod obey good guy um very friendly very nice very softly spoken not in a bad way just easy to talk to he listened to what you said he had his points he very very very good salesman David Carroll says Jared Obede and Jason Irvine have offered to help the Aboriginal Land Council develop some community housing outside Port Macquarie.

If that went well, they could talk about broader joint development. We probably have 150 undetermined land claims, so if the land claims were determined, then we would certainly have land that they would be interested in, yes definitely, but the land claims process could be 10 years early and there is no guarantee that it will be resolve in our favor. David Carroll says the developers claimed they could help speed up the process, they said I have people, hey, you have experience knowing the legal jargon. They say we have people who work on the state land board, just like people who work on local councils.

Now exactly what that means, I'm not sure what I mean. That probably means they are big promoters and so when they call people, they respond: did they explicitly say they had contacts within the larger Aboriginal land claim infrastructure or did they suggest that maybe it was within a government department? I couldn't say a hundred. percent, but it was certainly whether they were just contacts or they, but had access to the people involved in the process, whether they could expedite a land claimfor you, then it would potentially be a great benefit for the two of you to work together if you could. yes that would be a benefit yes david carroll says jared obede and jason irvine also boasted about a deal they had made with another indigenous group, the karua aboriginal land council, was the controversial beachfront development at hawke's nest , which was on land previously owned by the local Aboriginal people they talked about how they have worked with other Aboriginal community groups what they talked about they said look we have made a great deal with the cruel land council you should talk to them they are all happy with what we've done down there, so they explicitly said they helped expedite the land claim with the crews, they did well, they said they specifically said they helped the process, um, exactly what that means, I don't know, no, I don't know.

I was worried to ask you. I know that if we were going to get to that stage closer to that stage, then we could talk in more detail, but yes, they said that they accelerated the process after the meeting. Jason Irvine sent an email to David Carroll with the subject Our Projects. He attached two developments that he said we are doing now, one was Lake Cat Eye and the other was the beachfront development at Hawke's Nest. The email showed the scale of his ambitions. The plan was to build a complex of eleven four-story apartment blocks and luxury villas nearby. to the beach I said they are very happy with this and the big development will have a big impact on the community and we help process land claims we help with all the local council things the beach front site at Hawke's Nest had been awarded to the Kerua Aboriginal people as part of a land claim council and Baptist pastor Len Roberts was closely involved in the process this is Aboriginal land all the land is Aboriginal but this land was returned to the local Kuruwa Aboriginal Land Council a couple of years ago years it was crown land len roberts was the chief executive of the aboriginal land council for two years he played a key role in securing 270 hectares of beachfront land at Hawke's Nest.

Look, this is a map of the land council lands that have been returned to them in recent years. We're standing here at the golf club and as you can see it goes along the beach all the way to the national parks. That's a lot of land, isn't it? It's a huge amount of land and it's wonderful. For Aboriginal people, the Land Council agreed to sell two parcels of that land to developers in 2016. The price was $1.5 million. One of the buyers was Mohan Ibrahim, the same developer behind Pacific Drive in Port Macquarie. Merwin Ibrahim told Four Corners that he has never done business with the Obed family.

The Abeed family is telling people they are the secret backers of the Hawks Nest Golf Club development. Do you know anything about that partner? That is absolute news to me. I can tell you now if I smelled like Obed. was involved in the sale of that land, it wouldn't have happened, the Abeed family is telling some people we've been in contact with that they helped expedite land claims here for the crew, is there any truth to that? Dude, I can't see how Lynn Roberts says she negotiated the sale of the land through a local consultant. Did you have any dealings with the Obed family?

No, I'm telling you friend, you know it well, you know my background and you know that I work when it comes. For that kind of thing I'm a fan, you never dealt with Jared O'Beed or Eddie Obede Junior, no, mate, no, they wouldn't want to come near me. Lynn Roberts is also a consulting archaeologist after the land was sold. Wrote a cultural heritage report for the developers who found the site had no significance to Aboriginal people there is no archaeological value to that land because it is disturbed land go through the process disturb the land you were there and saw how it is disturbed half of it is a car park half is a rubbish dump your report was crucial to the council's decision to reclassify the block for development the council then voted twice to move the development forward without declaring any conflict of interest don't you see some people?

I would think you had a conflict of interest given that you were the chief executive of the land council when you sold the land, you prepared a cultural heritage report on the land saying it had no cultural value to Aboriginal people and then you were on the council that helped rezone the land don't you see how this could be seen as a favor to the developers? How can this be a favor to developers? Oh, I don't think you understand. You're only suggesting because I sold the land. for the benefit of the land council for the benefit of the land council I'm doing a developer a favor you have to be kidding me how?

I don't see how you can go two and two and get five the decision to sell the land was very controversial len roberts left his position as chief executive of the kuruwa aboriginal land council in 2018. Was there any opposition to the sale within the community kuruwa? I have them here, the minutes, there is no opposition. It was very upsetting when I found out that I couldn't believe it. They sold it, you know, for a little money. I mean, yes, Jan Webb lives in Hawke's Nest and is a member of the crew a land council she was devastated when she found out the land had been sold my father was a founding member of the crew aboriginal land council who has since passed away, but He was passionate and stipulated that we must keep that lane forever so that our future generations can enjoy it and when I found out that it had been sold, you know, I feel like that has been an injustice to my father and to other elders who wanted to keep that land forever for our people, and now we don't have them, what would you have preferred?

The land had been used to, I would have preferred if we kept it within the land council for the community, you know, to build a cultural center, a business of some kind to be self-sufficient. Local elders Hector and Vanessa Saunders say the sale of the land was spurred on. without the full support of the community, the board was making decisions on behalf of the community, without consulting the community, that's where the fault was, that it was making all the decisions and then when things had to be approved immediately, oh, we have this extraordinary meeting. Come on up, you need to be at that meeting because we have to get these approved, Hector, if I were to show you what you think about that, how does it make you feel that that could potentially be built on some of your land? just terribly disgusting in April of this year the council rezoned the land for development over 60 people raised objections opposing the development there were nine submissions supporting the development and yet the council dismissed it as if it didn't matter and went ahead with approval for the rezoning, which was quite annoying, I must say it is an area that really needs to be preserved, it is beautiful there, I can understand why all the developers want to put their finger on it.

Councilman Peter Ipov was suspicious of the sale of the land and has raised questions in council. It was as if someone had won the lottery or the powerball by obtaining that land so cheap, that was what caught my attention the most: the value of the land compared to the beach could exceed six million dollars if the development is approved, which is a huge windfall for the developers, what if I told you that the Obed family, which is Eddie Obede and his children, are behind that development ? Well that's shocking, that's absolutely shocking, that's a big surprise, but I also think in some ways it's understandable because there are a lot of people who have been fishing looking for opportunities here, could you put pressure on the council for a proper investigation to be done into who is behind the development?

I'm going to go back to the tip and say that I have roasted grillbot. by four corners taken by surprise by all this and that the ediobeed family is supposed to be involved in this jarrod obede did not respond to multiple interview requests so he went to his house oh hi hi jared yes hi jared ira swing speaking from four corners you have a moment for a quick chat no, I'm fine thank you can I ask you why your family name is not in the development of your falcon nest? I don't know what you're talking about, eddie o'b jr told the four corners the family had the right to do business but refused to answer a list of detailed questions as eddie obede adjusts to life in prison new wales government South is now trying to reclaim the $30 million from the coal deal, as well as at least $5 million in unpaid legal fees.

You can't defraud the state of tens of millions of dollars and get away with it, the tax office too. is going after the compliant to get a share of the corrupt windfall when they are still in private schools, they are still in their luxury homes they are still living their opulent lifestyles well, as far as I know it doesn't seem to have had any negative impact and I understand that everything remains the same, this is just the beginning of plans to change. Hawke's Nest Forever next step is a development application to be submitted next year. The latest plan is for five apartment blocks, each four stories high.

We are going to build a hotel-style apartment development, but I don't think it will benefit the community in the long term in the sense of whether it will bring permanent residence whether it will increase membership in the surf club whether it will increase the number of children in the local school If it's going to create more jobs in the community for you I know the maintenance guy or the builders or the house painters I don't think it is I think it's purely a money grab from a developer there's also a retirement village proposed and it's going to happen Talk about a five-star hotel, restaurants and more apartments, it's exactly what the residents of Hawke's Nest fear: go to the beach and say where the surf club is.

Look along the beach, there are 15 kilometers of pristine beach without a building in sight. If this development goes ahead then it will be the end of the wedge further development along the beach is going to be a nightmare, why are you fighting? Fighting to maintain our bushy character and falcon's nest feel. We are not opposed to development. We just want to keep the city the way it is now. I don't know if you can hear the kookaburras in the background but this is what I live with every day and I love it, if I see a development there it will just break me, I just can't believe it and it's not something I would do it's not something with what I agree with is not part of me it is not part of my culture and it just hurts me to know that this is going to happen.