FORMER Newcastle Labor MP Jodi McKay has dismissed accusations from Nathan Tinkler’s lawyer that she sought a donation from the then billionaire for her 2011 campaign.
‘‘I don’t sell myself ...,’’ Ms McKay, pictured, said at a corruption hearing on Friday.
‘‘I never have and I never will, so what you’re proposing is completely wrong.’’
Ms McKay, who lost to Tim Owen at the 2011 election, also ended speculation she could stand as an independent for Newcastle at the upcoming byelection, saying the city needed a ‘‘fresh start’’.
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JODI McKAY has ended speculation she could stand as independent for Newcastle, saying the city needs a ‘‘fresh start’’.
And she has partly defended the man who admitted he took illegal donations from property developers for his successful bid to oust her from the seat, despite her being ‘‘shocked, appalled and deeply saddened’’ by the evidence aired at the Independent Commission Against Corruption that showed the 2011 contest for Newcastle was an ‘‘unfair’’ election.
Speaking outside the inquiry yesterday after giving evidence for a second time, the former minister for the Hunter and Newcastle Labor MP said she had no intention of standing as an independent candidate for the upcoming byelection, but appeared not to rule out a political return altogether.
‘‘Look, not in Newcastle ... I’ve been overwhelmed by the support that I’ve received and certainly the encouragement I received to stand. But Newcastle needs a new beginning,’’ she said.
Like the city’s residents, she had struggled to come to terms with the evidence that had emerged of campaigns against her in the seat, with much of it hard to hear.
‘‘I felt there was something wrong, but I had no idea it was as bad as what it was,’’ she said.
But Ms McKay would not kick her former political opponent, Tim Owen, now he is well and truly down, after being forced to resign from Parliament for admitting he took money from property developers despite laws banning such donations.
She said the Liberal Party had ‘‘very badly let down’’ the electorate but she still had regard for Mr Owen.
‘‘He was a good local MP and he did a lot of good for Newcastle,’’ Ms McKay said.
To the city, she had one thing to say: ‘‘Don’t go back to the way it was’’.
‘‘We need to accept change, we need to see the CBD move forward and I know that there are some good candidates standing, including [Labor’s] Tim Crakanthorp, but the city ... has to keep going forward,’’ she said.
Earlier, in the inquiry, she angrily rejected suggestions from Nathan Tinkler’s lawyer that she had sought to solicit a donation from the former billionaire, in contrast to her account that Mr Tinkler had offered to use his employees as fronts to funnel cash into her 2011 campaign in an attempt to secure her support for his Mayfield coal-loader proposal.
‘‘I want to put it to you that you did so because you saw your political future at that particular point in time ... as desperate,’’ Harland Koops said.
‘‘I don’t sell myself Mr Koops, I never have and I never will, so what you’re proposing is completely wrong,’’ Ms McKay replied. ‘‘I also don’t pander to influential, powerful people.’’
Philip Strickland SC, barrister for former Labor treasurer Eric Roozendaal, also suggested to Ms McKay she was in an ‘‘emotional state’’ and could not accurately recall a heated conversation with Mr Roozendaal.
‘‘I’m not sure I was emotional ... I was angry,’’ she said, adding the conversation had stuck in her mind.
The pair had spoken in February 2011 over delays to the announcement of a preferred proponent for a container terminal at the same Mayfield steelworks site, after Ms McKay’s repeated attempts to obtain information about the hold-up.
She reiterated Mr Roozendaal went quiet and said in a low voice ‘‘haven’t you spoken to Tinkler’’.
A Treasury document questioning aspects of the container terminal project was leaked to the Newcastle Herald the same day.
After learning of it, Ms McKay rang Mr Roozendaal and told him she would not support what he was doing.
She told the inquiry she had not spoken to Mr Roozendaal, who was in the public gallery, since and did not intend to.
