Wagga will have to wait a bit longer to get rid of land remaining from a failed $400 million ‘International Trade Centre’.
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Councillors were asked on Monday night to consider the ‘proposed sale of Lot 1 DP1136194 at Copland Street, East Wagga”, once at the centre of the China-backed project.
During a confidential section of the meeting, the sale was deferred until council staff could evaluate further options.
The motion signals a potential end to the six-year saga around what was billed as Wagga’s biggest development back in 2012.
Mayor Greg Conkey denied the sale timing was related to fresh scrutiny of the project’s links to disgraced former Wagga MP Daryl Maguire and an alleged plot by the Chinese government to influence federal MPs.
“There is no hurry for us to sell this block of land, that’s why it was deferred,” Cr Conkey said.
“(The motion) is just having a report come back and having a look at it.”
The trade centre proposal collapsed in 2013 after the Chinese consortium behind the project failed to submit a planning application.
Cr Conkey said the Copland Street lot was a “valuable piece of light industrial land”.
“We have decided to have a closer look (at the easements) to see if we can parcel up that land to include it in the sale,” he said.
Cr Conkey said it was an “ideal time” to sell.
“This is the same parcel of land and it has been mooted for a number of things,” he said.
“We are seeing if we can parcel up a few other blocks that were not part of the original motion.”
Last month, Fairfax Media reported that Mr Maguire accepted assisted travel to China in 2002 from the same businessman who was allegedly pressured by Chinese intelligence agencies to cultivate Labor MPs Eric and Joel Fitzgibbon.
Mr Maguire had dealings with ACA Capital's sole director Humphrey Xu for the next decade, culminating in a failed bid by ACA Investments to build the international trade centre in Wagga.
Humphrey Xu, 58, is the former boyfriend and business partner of Helen Liu.
Ms Liu's personal friendship with then defence minister Joel Fitzgibbon made headlines in 2009 due to allegations that Ms Liu was suspected of having links to Chinese military intelligence.
The Immigration Department also investigated Mr Xu after the Wagga deal collapsed.
Labor has called for the Independent Commission Against Corruption to investigate the centre but Cr Rod Kendall, mayor at the time, said he was not aware of anything that required a referral.