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If only the other North Sydney councillors would have their parents swing to such fulsome defence!
(For the record,Drummond’s PhD was about how fame legitimises architects.)
As CBD has now discovered,this was not the first family outing at North Sydney Council.
That was a decade ago,when Gibson first appointed her daughter to be a community representative on the council’s Urban Design Advisory Panel. One year later,that became a paid position.
“Unbeknown to staff at the time,Ms Knowles is the daughter of Councillor Gibson,” an investigation undertaken for the council by inConsult concluded in 2013.
“Councillor Gibson breached the Code of Conduct by failing to declare an interest in relation to the appointment of her daughter ... and when development applications which had previously been considered by the UDAP came before Council.”
It was “unintentional,''Gibson told the inConsult investigators.
FAMILY FAVOURITE
But the family’s run of unintentional conflict-of-interest oversights,unfortunately,continues.
In May,Gibson’s other daughter,Maija Kernaghan,and her husbandDaniel submitted plans to subdivide a Cremorne property they owned through their Penguin Property Trust.
As is usual,the application process requested owners disclose"all affiliations or associations they had with Councillors'or Council staff over the past two years". It specifically asks whether there are any connections based on"a friendship,personal or family relationship".
Despite Kernaghan’s mother and her sister sitting on council,the application is marked “no”.
Four months later,as wrangling over approvals continued,“it came to Council officers attention that Penguin … is associated with a relative of a sitting member of Council”.
Gibson,a spokeswoman told us,had “voluntarily disclosed” the relationship.
The property consultant who had drawn up the application “subsequently advised that the omission was completely inadvertent on their behalf and apologised”.
ITALIAN JOB
Former Nine Entertainment bossDavid Gyngell barely managed five minutes in the witness box yesterday,having been hauled to Melbourne from his Byron hideout to appear before the corporate watchdog's court pursuit of ex-Tennis Australia directorHarold Mitchell.
Did he talk about broadcasting rights at a 2012 meeting,ASIC's counselMichael Pearce SC queried. Can you write down your mobile number,Mitchell's barristerNick De Young SC wanted to know.
Then,err,that was it."I come from Byron Bay for that,"Gyngell asked as he left the stand.
"It’s the first time I’ve seen a witness disappointed to leave the witness box,"Pearce said.
Gyngell is one of several high-profile former media executives to be drawn into the legal action against Mitchell and his fellow directorStephen Healy,with the regulator claiming they had breached their duties to help Seven West Media secure broadcast rights.
Among those to be called include Seven executiveBruce McWilliam,former Ten chiefHamish McLennan (now REA Group chairman) and one-time Nine managing directorJeffrey Browne.
But the trip to Bleak City wasn't a total waste of time for Gyngell. We spotted him breaking bread with Browne the night before his court date at Melbourne institution Di Stasio Citta.