<span class="" id="parent-fieldname-description"> Controversial planning decisions in Newcastle, including the removal of the city’s heavy rail link, and the Hunter are set to go before a parliamentary inquiry following an ICAC probe into MP behaviour. </span> <p>Greens MP David Shoebridge says “a majority of MPs” are behind such an inquiry, putting forward a motion for it to be established.<br /><br />The planned removal of the Newcastle heavy rail line between Wickham and the Newcastle CBD, as well as the installation of light rail, are to go under the microscope, Shoebridge says.<br /><br />Local Greens members also said last week that they would throw their support behind a community driven campaign for a planning system “that puts local communities first.”<br /><br />Greens candidate for the Newcastle by-election Michael Osborne said: “The proposals for inappropriate high-rise development and plans to cut the rail line are examples of planning that goes against the interest of Newcastle residents.<br /><br />“The Greens will be running on clean politics in this election which is about a planning system where local residents have a greater say about what happens in their community.”<br /><br />Another Greens representative, Jane Oakley, said “the ICAC has demonstrated that developers are lining the pockets of MPs in NSW and the community is right to be concerned about whether this has influenced their decisions.”<br /><br />A nine-week ICAC hearing into political donations recently saw Liberal member for Newcastle, Tim Owen, forced to quit Parliament. Owen admitted to ICAC that he took $10,000 in cash from a property developer before the last election.<br /><br />Fellow Liberal member Andrew Cornwell also quit after admitting to a similar charge.</p>
