Read more about this question in the:

• Sydney Morning Herald article From leader to lobbyist: How Morris Iemma opens doors for Sydney Property Developers by Michael McGowan, 18 October, 2025 HERE
• The Guardian article Morris Iemma’s lobbying firm does bumper business after Minns’ election as NSW begins planning overhaul by Anne Davies, 18 October 2025 HERE

Summary

• Former Labour premier Morris Iemma worked to fast track a housing development in Rosalind Park (Menangle) for some 1450 new homes on 264 hectares which he later received provisional approval from the NSW Department of Planning
• The Sydney Morning Herald also has revealed that Premier Chris Minns did not disclose a meeting with Morris Iemma that occurred a week before when Morris Iemma, a former Labor premier sought to lobby the Premier’s Office over two major housing developments.
• Since leaving Parliament Morris Iemma has established himself as a property developer lobbyist
• NSW Labor has failed to act on requests from the anti-corruption watchdog to overhaul lobbying laws.

About Morris Iemma

• He is considered a long-time Labor powerbroker
• He once worked for factional heavyweight Graham Richardson
• 1991-2008: served as an MP .
• He was a long-time health minister under Bob Carr
• 2005: Iemma becomes Premier following Bob Carr’s resignation as premier
• 2007: His unexpected election victory cemented him as a Labor Party hero
• 2019: Registered as a lobbyist and formed his lobbyist company IEMMA PATTERSON PREMIER ADVISORY (IPPA)
• 2021: ICAC review finds significant issues with the regime covering their conduct.
• 2019-2023: IPPA has 25 clients
• 2023: Labor returns to power
• 2023: Chris Minns (Premier), Stephen Kamper (Minister for Lands and Property, Minister for Multiculturalism, Minister for Sport, and Minister for Jobs and Tourism), Sophie Cotsis (Minister for Minister for Industrial Relations, and Minister for Work Health and Safety) and Ryan Park (Minister for Health, Minister for Regional Health, and Minister for the Illawarra and the South Coast) all thanked him in their first speeches to the NSW Parliament.
• 2023-2025: IPPA has 50 clients including Billbergia, Deicorp and Coronation Property. IPPA has had 25 meetings or 49% of all disclosed contacts between lobbyists and the Department of Planning.
  NSW Lobbyist Register show Iemma’s firm, IPPA, has made significant advances since Labor returned to government in 2023.
• 2023 Iemma appointed as chair of Venues NSW but later resigned due to poor health.
• 2023: the Sydney Basin Koala Network warned that the Iemma proposal at Macarthur would have an impact on a koala corridor and “remove vital koala habitat”.
• April 2024: Minns and one of his senior advisers, Cherie Burton, met with Iemma for a breakfast meeting.
  Cherie Burton, who was Minns’ predecessor in the seat of Kogarah, was Minister for Housing when Iemma became premier in 2005. This meeting was not disclosed by Premier Minns according to the SMH.
• 15 April 2024: Iemma emailed Cherie Burton noting “our discussion in relation to the proposed housing redevelopment projects” in Macquarie Park and Kogarah
• 2023-2025: Public disclosures show the NSW Planning Department has met with Iemma more than any other lobbyist
• 2023-2025: Iemma has regularly petitioned Premier Minns and Planning Minister Paul Scully’s offices directly on behalf of developers Deicorp, Leamac and Kerry Stokes’ Seven Group Holdings
• Early 2025: ICAC Chief commissioner John Hatzistergos, revealed to a parliamentary inquiry that he had written to both Premier Minns and Special Minister of State John Graham about the recommendations four times since Labor came to power, including twice in 2025
• April 2025: Nick Wood, a senior policy adviser to Minns takes on responsibility for planning.
• April 2025 ICAC Chief commissioner John Hatzistergos says that the ICAC recommendations have not been introduced . . ‘ “The situation … is one which concerns me greatly.”
• May 2025: Iemma lobbied Nick Wood, on behalf of billionaire Robert Ell’s property development company, Leda Holdings
• 12 June 2025: Iemma wrote to the most senior public servant in NSW, secretary to the Premier’s Department Simon Draper, requesting advice on Menangle, Rosalind Park. Hours later, Draper wrote to the secretary of the Planning Department, Kiersten Fishburn, requesting she “assist us with a substantive response”.
• 14 July 2025, Nick Wood sent Iemma’s original correspondence to senior staffers in Planning Minister Paul Scully’s office, including his chief of staff, Paul Levins, and his deputy, Gino Mandarino.
• 18 July 2025: Another senior planning official told Scully’s office “in relation to your question as to whether [the rezoning] could potentially progress”, there was “potential” that Leda’s Menangle rezoning could go ahead subject to a dwelling cap based on wastewater and transport restraints.
• August 2025: Gateway Determination issued allowing the rezoning of Leda’s Menangle to proceed to next stage of assessment.

QUESTIONS

• What is the code enshrined in legislation governing consultants [and] third-party lobbyists, that include equisite disclosures, probity and ethics assessments?
• repeated calls from the Independent Commission Against Corruption for the Minns government to adopt a series of reforms to lobbying laws in NSW after a 2021 review found significant issues with the regime covering their conduct. The review made more than two dozen recommendations, including new obligations for public officials who are lobbied and a ban on “undocumented or secret” meetings.
• ICAC also called for a stand-alone regulator and code of conduct for public officials that would require them to “discourage” lobbying where there was a formal assessment process, such as a development application, in place. But the Minns government has failed to act on the recommendations.