Liberal figure promoted alleged mafia don to Italian business chamber

Mr Guy appointed Mr De Domenico as chair of the state’s property development agency Places Victoria (now Development Victoria) in 2014.

Mr De Domenico is a former Liberal deputy chief minister in the Australian Capital Territory and more recently the head of Victorian branch of the private sector development lobby, the Urban Development Institute of Australia.

He is, and has been, a member of a slew of semi-government boards and was formerly a deputy chancellor of Latrobe University. Treasurer Scott Morrison, in his former role as social services minister, appointed Mr De Domenico to chair the Australian Housing and Urban Research Institute in 2014. He has also served as Trade Commissioner to Italy.

Mr De Domenico was, until last month, also the chairman of the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry, a committee part funded by the Italian government that promotes business and political links between Australia and Italy.

After eight years as chamber chairman, he was voted off the board in March partly, The Age understands, because of concerns about his support for Mr Madafferi.

In an interview with The Age, Mr De Domenico denied he had pushed for the alleged mafia figure to be given chamber membership, describing the allegation as "crap".

"That’s not true mate,’’ he said when asked specifically about the October chamber of commerce meeting.

Mr De Domenico said he had neither a personal nor a commercial relationship with Mr Madafferi: "No relationship whatsoever".

"I know who he (Madafferi) is, but I don’t know him.’’

Mr De Domenico did not respond to repeated attempts for further comment.

But documents reveal that in October, De Domenico nominated Market Europa, a chain of green groceries owned by the alleged mafia chief for corporate membership of the Italian chamber.

Confidential chamber documents created in October and November last year show a resolution in which the chamber accepted, as a group, 10 new individual and corporate members.

The following resolution records that Mr De Domenico then "handed up a duly filled up application’’, seeking membership for "Europa Market (sic), run by T. Madafferi’’.

The documents show that the following month, Mr Madafferi's proposed membership was withdrawn.

Leaked files seen by Fairfax Media reveal the nomination of Mr Madafferi caused grave concerns among Italian diplomats and some chamber members because of his alleged Calabrian mafia involvement.

The nomination came just weeks after the The Age’s August revelation that Mr Guy secretly dined with Mr Madafferi, his cousin, market gardener Frank Lamattina, and others, at the Lobster Cave restaurant at Beaumaris in Melbourne’s south east in April 2017.

The Andrews government seized on the revelations, claiming it was gross hypocrisy for a tough-on-crime crusader like Guy to dine with a man police had had banned from Crown Casino and all Victorian race tracks.

In his last day as planning minister in 2014 – ahead of the caretaker period prior to the 2014 state election – Mr Guy appointed Mr De Domenico to a three-year contract as chairman of Places Victoria, the precursor to Development Victoria.

Development Victoria is responsible for developing state government-owned buildings and land such as Docklands.

Labor saw Mr De Domenico's appointment as a provocative move so close to the election, particularly since Mr De Domenico had often voiced opposition to government having a role in property development. Still, Labor re-appointed him as deputy chairman in 2017.

The saga leaves a major cloud over Mr De Domenico, especially given his membership of government boards where high standards of probity are crucial.

In an affidavit filed in court in June 2017 in support of Mr Madafferi's ban from the casino and race tracks, Detective Superintendent Peter Brigham said the police hold "substantial intelligence" indicating Mr Madafferi had "substantial and close involvement with serious criminal conduct including drug importation, murder and extortion".

Mr Madafferi, who also part owns the national pizza chain La Porchetta, has never been charged with any crime and denies any wrongdoing.

In the early 2000s, police intelligence linking Mr Madafferi to allegations of "murder, gunshot wounding and arson" was detailed in court but vehemently denied by Mr Madafferi.

Prior to that, he was named as a suspected hitman in two coronial inquests in the 1990s. He was identified in a recent police intelligence briefing as the leader of a Calabrian Mafia cell in Melbourne that remains a powerful presence at Victoria's wholesale fruit and vegetable market.

Mr Madafferi’s cousin Frank Lamattina is a long standing supporter of the Liberal party.

In September, The Sunday Age also revealed that Mr Madafferi was pressing through one of his companies, Madan Nominees, for government approval to develop a semi-rural/green wedge property he owned in Melbourne’s south east that would deliver him a windfall of as much as $120 million.

On Friday a spokesman for the Italian Chamber of Commerce and Industry stressed that the chamber had elected a new, more youthful board, had overhauled its governance and accountability arrangements, and and that problems like the Madafferi membership saga would not occur again.