Former NSW lands minister Tony Kelly faces criminal corruption charges over government's Pittwater land purchase

Former NSW lands minister Tony Kelly faces the prospect of criminal charges after the Independent Commission Against Corruption found he acted corruptly over the purchase of the Pittwater property, Currawong.

The NSW corruption watchdog has found Kelly "engaged in corrupt conduct" earlier this year involving the $12.2 million purchase.

ICAC commissioner David Ipp has advised the state government to consider launching criminal charges.

The former workers’ retreat at Currawong had a troubled planning history, having been sold by Unions NSW to a private developer, Eco Villages, in controversial circumstances in 2009.

Less than a fortnight before this year's state election, and despite lacking authority from the former NSW premier Kristina Keneally, the former chief of the Land and Property Management Authority Warwick Watkins bought the land for public use in March much to the joy of conservationists.

The report tabled in Parliament found Watkins engaged in corrupt activity when he asked Kelly to sign a backdated letter that gave him permission to buy a property, Currawong, without the government’s consent.

The nostalgic 20-hectare Pittwater beachfront site is where union workers have holidayed since 1949.

There was wild talk of its $20 million value in boomtime 1988 when the Labour Council was under the control of John MacBean.

In 1990 the NSW Trades and Labour Council overturned its decision to sell its Currawong Beach site to the property developer CRI for $3.87 million.

It was relisted in 1991 by Michael Easson's Labour Council of with private residential potential or small leisure resort possibilities, and spruiked by Macquarie Bank's Rob Lee.

In 1999 Michael Costa, who was then the Labour Council secretary, tried unsuccessfully to negotiate a 99-year lease with the transcendental meditation group Maharishi TM Incorporated.

In 2006, three days before Christmas, Allen Linz and Eduard Litver lodged documents with the Land Titles Office for the Currawong beach cottages, which are surrounded by national park, under the company name Echo Villages Pty Ltd.

A spokeswoman for the Friends of Currawong, Jo Holder, accused the then secretary of Unions NSW, John Robertson, of deliberately putting the land in private hands after a long campaign to retain it for public use.