Who is Steve McMahon, the racing official at the centre of the Chris Minns ICAC scandal?

A horse racing official at the centre of a political scandal is a former mayor who also once ran as a federal Labor election candidate.

NSW Premier Chris Minns will be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption over accusations he didn’t declare a long-time friendship with Australian Turf Club’s (ATC) Head of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations, Steve McMahon.

The allegations centre around an informal meeting between the pair earlier this year before the state government fast-tracked a deal to turn Sydney’s Rosehill Gardens Racecourse into a new suburb with 25,000 homes.

It’s understood Premier Minns and Mr McMahon have known each other for more than 20 years through their Labor connections in Sydney’s south.

Before he joined the ATC, Mr McMahon served as Hurstville Council mayor in Sydney’s south, from 2011 until 2013, when he was preselected as the Labor candidate in the federal seat of Barton after former attorney-general Robert McClelland decided to not recontest.

Mr McMahon walked away from politics after Liberal candidate Nickolas Varvaris won the federal seat, despite Labor previously holding it on a 8.9 per cent margin.

But Mr McMahon’s support for Labor Party and Mr Minns didn’t wane and on several occasions posted images of the pair at political events not long after his loss.

One post from January 2015 showed him door-knocking for his mate for the upcoming state election in the seat of Kogarah, which Mr Minns went on to win.

Mr McMahon is the current Head of Corporate Affairs and Government Relations for the ATC having previously been a Labor candidate during the 2013 federal election

‘Chris Minns is welcome all over Kogarah today,’ he captioned the post to X which included an image of a flier in support of Mr Minns on a doormat.

Another post on Mr McMahon’s X account from September 2015 the year prior pictured him with Mr Minns and then-federal opposition leader Bill Shorten at Ramsgate RSL at an event environmental non-profit, the Australian Solar Council.

‘Fighting to keep renewable energy targets … Libs no show,’ he captioned the image. 

The posts came while Mr McMahon held roles as NSW Trainers Association chief executive NSW Racing Industry Consultative Group Deputy Chair and Mortdale RSL director. 

He left the NSW Trainers Association at the end of 2015 but continued the other jobs while also taking on roles as ATC’s Public Officer and and then corporate affairs and government relations

Mr McMahon describes his current job on LinkedIn as improving the ‘development of ATC Strategic Plan including racing, infrastructure, property (and) commercial future plans’.

Mr Minns is accused of fast-tracking a deal to turn Sydney ‘s Rosehill Gardens Racecourse (pictured, Mr Minns and ATC chairman Peter McGauren at the course) into a new suburb after an informal meeting with Mr McMahon

Mr McMahon has on several occasions posted images of himself and Mr Minns at political events in the decade since his exit from politics (pictured centre, former federal minister Bill Shorten)

Most recently, Mr McMahon most recently posted an image of him with Mr Minns and federal climate change Chris Bowen at a charity event at Randwick Racecourse in August 2023.

The revelations come as a parliamentary committee led by Liberal Party opposition members voted to refer the project and its relationship to Mr McMahon and Mr Minns’ meeting to the anti-corruption watchdog, Seven News reported.

‘The committee is of the view that the premier should have declared a conflict of interest especially in light of the ICAC ruling on Operation Keppel,’ the committee report read.

Operation Keppel refers to the ICAC finding that former Premier Gladys Berejiklian engaged in serious corrupt conduct with her then-lover, former Liberal MP Darryl McGuire.

Daily Mail Australia does not suggest wrongdoing on behalf of either Premier Minns or Mr McMahon.  

The committee looking into the deal asked Mr Minns who came to him with the proposal to redevelop the racecourse. 

The scandal forced Ms Berejiklian to step down as NSW premier in September 2021 and eventually to exit politics altogether.

‘It would’ve been — I can’t remember his position — but Steve McMahon at the ATC,’ Mr Minns said.

‘I have known him for a long time.’

Mr Minns said it was not out of the ordinary.

‘Obviously, when you’re in government, people come to you and say, ‘Look, we’ve got an idea. We think this would be good for our organisation’,’ he said.

‘They might make a pitch that it’d be good for the state as well.’

Steve McMahon (previously) previously served as Hurstville mayor before going into the corporate world

Despite Steve McMahon leaving politics after losing the seat, he continued to support the Labor Party and Mr Minns and door-knock for his 2015 state election campaign (pictured)

While working in a non-profit for the NSW horse racing, Mr McMahon (left) also joined Mr Minns (centre) at other events such as a fast-breaking feast during Ramadan in 2014

Mr Minns said he made the announcement about the redevelopment ‘not long’ after Mr McMahon approached him.

When it was announced a spokesperson for Mr Minns said it was the ‘biggest thing we will ever do as the government. If this comes off, put it that way’.

High profile racehorse trainer Gai Waterhouse has previously testified the racing industry is ‘incensed’ by the plan.

In July, she told the parliamentary inquiry into the racing industry the ATC had no right to agree to the sale without a vote from its members.

Waterhouse said the members would never agree to selling the historic race track.

‘We would not be here today to discuss the sale of the cricket ground the SCG, or Bondi Beach, but yet we are here to discuss the sale to Rosehill,’ Ms Waterhouse told the inquiry. 

Mr Minns (pictured with his wife Anna) told a parliamentary committee there was nothing out of the ordinary about the proposed deal being pitched

‘The members are who own Rosehill. If they put it to the members now for a vote, it would be overwhelmingly against the sale.’

The ATC has maintained the deal is within its executive purview.

Daily Mail Australia has contacted Premier Minns’ office for comment. 

Mr Minns became the local MP for Kogarah in 2015 and served almost two years as NSW opposition leader before he was elected as Premier at the 2023 election.