“Just got a call from an MP friend of mine who is well connected in China,” Mr Hawatt texted Mr Demian in May 2016,according to evidence presented to the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Thursday.
The text continued:“He has a mega rich company who are seriously looking to buy 30 DA sites…. I told him about your sites including Canterbury Road. I said 160 plus per site. He is keen to talk about this and any other site you want to sell. They are keen,ready and cashed up.”
Mr Demian,who told ICAC the MP referred to was Mr Maguire,went on to have multiple meetings and contacts with Mr Hawatt and Mr Maguire.
A photograph of one of the meetings at a CBD café was tendered at the ICAC on Thursday. The meeting was attended by Mr Hawatt,Mr Maguire,Mr Demian,as well as an unnamed representative of Country Garden,a Chinese-owned development company.
Mr Demian said that he had been led to believe that “there are a number of entities in China that have business conferences with the state government agencies or MPs and obviously they get introduced to other Australian businesses for business transactions".
Mr Demian provided a list of potential development sites to Mr Hawatt,who in turn passed them on to Mr Maguire. The list included thousands of potential dwellings in places such as Canterbury Road,but also at Parramatta,Camellia and Waitara.