In his own words: Ron Hoenig’s two versions of events, six weeks apart

Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig’s justification for allegedly pressuring his most senior public servant to accelerate a tribunal matter involving a Labor mayor is at odds with evidence he provided to a parliamentary committee just six weeks earlier.

Hoenig on Tuesday appeared to confirm allegations first revealed in the Herald that he pressured Brett Whitworth, the Office of Local Government deputy secretary, on five separate occasions to accelerate a submission to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT) concerning former Bayside mayor Bill Saravinovski.

In confidential evidence to a parliamentary committee, Whitworth said Hoenig approached him after meetings, pushing him to accelerate the submission to NCAT. On the first two occasions, according to his evidence, the deputy secretary told him his involvement in the matter was improper, but the minister persisted.

Saravinovski was dropped as a candidate before the last local government elections as allegations swirled. Separately, a series of Machiavellian plays within Labor ensured senior frontbencher Steve Kamper’s chief of staff, Ed McDougall, replaced Saravinovski as the council’s mayor.

Hoenig cast his intervention during question time on Tuesday as imperative to ensure OLG dealt promptly with “overwhelming evidence of corruption and misconduct”.

“I pressed the agency for which I am accountable to this house, and which had received overwhelming evidence of corruption and serious misconduct,” he said.

But during a budget estimates hearing on September 2, Hoenig rejected having ever discussed Saravinovski’s “potential preselection, the timing of the hearings and any public knowledge of the proceeding”.

Hoenig said his involvement in the matter was limited to saying to Whitworth, “You’ve got to get on with this. You can’t just sit on it,” and suggesting he brief “external counsel with criminal experience”.

“That was the end of it, as far as I was concerned,” he said.

But on Tuesday, Hoenig told parliament: “It is my responsibility to ensure that the agency, which is in possession of overwhelming evidence of corruption and serious misconduct, does its job and refers the matter to NCAT.

“There is no way in the world I would sit idly by and allow a matter of corruption to be undetermined and undecided when I am aware of it.”

The extent of what he knew about the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s allegations was from what Whitworth told him “sometime in 2024 – I think in the latter part of the year” relating to “two councillors from two councils”.

On several occasions during the September budget estimates hearing, Hoenig denied discussing Labor preselections with Whitworth. But in his address to parliament on Tuesday, Hoenig said: “With an election looming and the Labor Party preselection process needing to occur, the matter needed to be dealt with promptly and thoroughly.”

Despite Hoenig saying the “ICAC had provided overwhelming evidence of corruption and serious misconduct”, the Herald revealed on Tuesday afternoon OLG had struck a plea deal with Saravinovski’s lawyers to ensure he only received a reprimand.

Hoenig did not respond to the Herald’s questions about whether he was aware of or approved of the plea deal. OLG had the option to push for Saravinovski to be suspended from council or disqualified from public office.

Saravinovski has never been charged or found guilty of corruption. In August, the Director of Public Prosecutions advised there was sufficient evidence to bring three counts of giving misleading to ICAC against the former Labor mayor.

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