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The Andrews government has tabled tens of thousands of pages of documents relating to the Ventnor planning saga.Credit:Jason South

They are likely to include details about a confidential out-of-court settlement that bought silence over the saga,which became known as Ventnor.

Among the documents are said to be those that Mr Guy refused to release to the Ombudsman during an investigation in 2013 and 2014.

The rezoning was quickly reversed,but prompted a later legal action which was settled out of court with a payment from the government.

The documents were delivered to the parliament on Monday morning in response to an order by the Labor-controlled lower house in March.

Coalition MPs have slammed the move,claiming it breaks a raft of precedents about the confidentiality of documents from previous governments.

The tabling of the thousands of documents ahead of the November election is also likely to be criticised as political payback for the damaging police investigation into Labor’s Red Shirts electoral rorts scandal,which was sparked by a complaint to police by the Opposition.

Serious questions have long hung over Mr Guy’s handling of the Ventnor case and the reasons that he sought to avoid scrutiny over both the rezoning and a subsequent legal battle.

On 8 September 2011,Mr Guy used special ministerial powers to override the local Bass Coast council to rezone 24 hectares of farmland for housing at seaside Ventnor on Phillip Island.

The decision to intervene was made against the advice of two expert planning panels,the minister’s own department and lawyers,and the unanimous position of the local council.

Carley Nicholls and Jim Hopkins in 2013. Nicholls owned the Ventnor property on Phillip Island controversially rezoned by planning minister Matthew Guy in September 2011.Credit:Simon Schluter

The Age revealed that at the time of the rezoning the property was being purchased by Carley Nicholls whose husband,Jim Hopkins,was a property developer and member of the Liberal Party on Phillip Island.

The Age also revealed that the rezoning followed lobbying on behalf of Mr Hopkins by family friend,former Kennett government planning minister and nearby resident,Rob Maclellan.

The rezoning sparked a storm of protest from local residents,Mr Guy’s own Liberal colleagues,and even celebrity visitor,Miley Cyrus.

Days later,Mr Guy was forced into a humiliating backflip. Ms Nicholls then sued,claiming financial damages as a result of the reversal.

In 2013,the government reached an out-of-court settlement with Nicholls,which averted a public grilling for himself and other senior party figures embroiled in the saga including then federal frontbenchers Greg Hunt and Andrew Robb,and former premier Ted Baillieu.

Details of the settlement were strictly confidential,but sources toldThe Age at the time the government paid out about $3 million in taxpayers'money.

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