Source : the age
The release of secret parliamentary evidence has revealed that Local Government Minister Ron Hoenig has been accused of lying under oath by one of his own top public servants.
The allegation was contained in the transcript of a closed-door parliamentary inquiry published after Brett Whitworth – the deputy secretary of the Office of Local Government (OLG) – requested his evidence be released.
Whitworth said he was “shocked but not surprised” to hear Hoenig explicitly deny discussing the Bayside preselection with him during budget estimates in September. Whitworth says they discussed the matter several times.
The inquiry was examining the end of Bill Saravinovski’s 40-year career as Bayside mayor, councillor and Labor powerbroker after he was referred to the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal (NCAT). The release of Whitworth’s evidence once again places Hoenig’s involvement in the Saravinovski matter under the spotlight.
Saravinovski, who spent 40 years on Rockdale and Bayside councils, was dumped from Labor’s ticket just weeks before the local government elections in September 2024. NCAT later found Saravinovski guilty of misconduct on three grounds and issued a reprimand.
According to a transcript of the evidence, Whitworth claimed Hoenig approached him on four or five occasions for post-meeting “corridor conversations”. Whitworth said Hoenig’s repeated questioning of him across late 2023 and early 2024 made him “totally uncomfortable” given the matter related to a Labor Party preselection.
“I have been a public servant for 30 years. I have been dealing with ministers face-to-face for at least 15 or more. I know that there is a point where ministers are public servants and there is a point where ministers are political entities,” he responded.
Once Hoenig crossed that line, Whitworth said he “switched off”.
Hoenig, a former barrister, has served as a significant political figure in the Bayside area for decades, serving as mayor of the former Botany Council for 30 years until he was elected as the member for Heffron in 2012.
According to a transcript of his evidence, Whitworth told the inquiry: “I’m sure that I’d said on at least one occasion, ‘The issue of [Labor] preselection is not a matter for me, and it’s not a matter for you.’ He would say, ‘Yes, I know, but it’s a time issue. We’ve had this for far too long’.”
After Whitworth made the allegation in a citizen’s right of reply tabled with parliament in late June 2025, Hoenig explicitly denied discussing the Bayside preselection with his deputy secretary after the matter was raised during budget estimates in September.
When asked how he felt hearing Hoenig deny discussing the preselection, Whitworth said he was “shocked but not surprised”, alluding to a line from the television series The West Wing.
“My reaction was to stare blankly at the books … and keep my face as contained as I possibly can,” he said.
When pressed on whether he expected Hoenig to lie, Whitworth replied: “No, I didn’t. It’s not that I expected the minister to lie. Again, you’re asking me to speculate on what the minister was thinking at the time.”
He later said the reason he did not contradict the minister’s evidence during budget estimates was because he held “a fear that if I opened the door, then what else comes out?”
In his evidence, Whitworth said the decision to take action against Saravinovski was his own, and based on material provided by the Independent Commission Against Corruption. He decided against raising it with the departmental secretary because “I didn’t see that it was a matter of the minister misusing political office for a Labor Party matter”.
While under parliamentary privilege, the minister justified his pressure on Whitworth as necessary to prevent Saravinovski from running for council again while facing “overwhelming evidence of corruption and misconduct”.
Hoenig reiterated his denial that he raised the preselection with Whitworth, saying that “recollections could differ in respect of the nature of conversation”.
The Herald later revealed a political plot leading to the office of NSW Premier Chris Minns resulted in Saravinovski being replaced as mayor by Ed McDougall, the chief of staff to Lands and Property Minister Steve Kamper. Jo Jansyn, a Bayside councillor and Hoenig staffer, lost Labor preselection and quit her job the next day.
Despite the allegations levelled against Saravinovski, senior Labor powerbrokers nominated his then 21-year-old son, Christopher – who had no political experience or notable professional standing – to replace him on the party’s Bayside ticket.
In late September last year, Saravinovski was charged with providing misleading evidence to the state’s corruption watchdog.
Hoenig did not respond directly to questions about Whitworth’s claim he lied, saying he had answered questions on the matter extensively during budget estimates and in parliament.
“I maintain that my frustration with this matter was that a referral of material by the ICAC detailing serious misconduct against a serving councillor was not being dealt with quickly enough,” he said.
“Since being appointed as minister my continued focus has been ensuring that misconduct-related issues are dealt with swiftly and effectively to ensure the integrity of decision-making in local government is preserved.”
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Max Maddison is a state political reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald.
