Mr Newcombe’s family company, the Village Motors chain of car dealerships, has been a significant political donor to the mayor and other councillors.

His dealings with the council, which has handed MBRIT tens of millions of dollars worth of business since 2015, are being investigated by Queensland’s Crime and Corruption Commission amid allegations of cronyism, influence peddling and failures to manage conflicts of interest.

CCC detectives are understood to have asked witnesses for details of any undeclared gifts or gifts in kind to councillors from MBRIT, Mr Newcombe or Village Motors.

Cr Sutherland and other councillors featured prominently in media coverage of the Gibb visit, including at a lunch event on the bayfront at Redcliffe attended by Queensland Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk.

Brisbane Times has established Mr Newcombe, through another entity he controlled, also paid for the media lunch, at a cost of a further $13,000.

A witness has separately told the CCC that Mr Newcombe also paid for the launch of the new Redcliffe Peninsula rail line in October 2016, attended by then-prime minister Malcolm Turnbull, Ms Palaszczuk and other dignitaries and estimated to have cost about $50,000.

Senior former council staff and other people involved in the Gibb visit said the mayor’s then-executive officer Corinne Mulholland had played a central role in its organisation.

Ms Mulholland, who quit her council job earlier this year to contest the federal seat of Petrie for the Labor Party, is a close personal friend of Mr Newcombe’s.

Just prior to the Gibb visit Ms Mulholland wrote to the Premier to advise of protocol during the media lunch, revealing MBRIT would be paying for the singer’s travel and accommodation.

A note in the document states: “NB: Funding for Barry’s attendance. While council is one of the sponsors of this year’s Redcliffe Festival, select private sponsors have assisted Moreton Bay Region Industry and Tourism group in organising the opening of Stage Two of Bee Gees Way.”

During the visit, Mr Newcombe and his partner stayed at the Oaks Mon Komo hotel in Redcliffe along with the Gibb entourage and hosted an after-party at the hotel, according to people who attended the party.

“Shane paid for all of it, he paid for the whole top floor of the Mon Komo,” a former council manager involved in the arrangements said.

The hotel declined to comment, citing privacy concerns.

Mr Newcombe had also provided luxury cars for the use of the Gibb entourage, the former manager added.

An email sent by a council staffer to Cr Sutherland in August 2015 shows MBRIT agreed to pay for three meals a day for the Gibb entourage, but suggested the star and his party should be told that “alcohol is not covered”.

Moreton Bay Regional Council, Ms Mulholland and Mr Newcombe did not respond to questions.

Gibb did not respond to questions sent via his record company, Sony Music.

The Newcombe family company Newcombe Holdings owns a string of local car dealerships under the Village Motors brand. It provided $20,000 of campaign funding to Cr Sutherland and a handful of other councillors in the March 2016 local election and the same amount in the 2012 campaign.

Shane Newcombe is a director of Newcombe Holdings, which is run by his mother Marlene Newcombe.

Village Motors has contracts to supply vehicles to the council and Newcombe Holdings owns land in and around the Petrie university precinct, which has been earmarked for fast-track development under one of Cr Sutherland’s signature policies.

Moreton Bay councillors were first told of MBRIT’s key role in the Gibb trip in a confidential report May 2015, four months prior to the visit.

The report revealed MBRIT had agreed to fund the transport and accommodation costs of Gibb and his entourage including hotels and meals in Sydney and Redcliffe and the costs of a two-day road trip, at an estimated total cost of $100,000.

But councillors were told the arrangement must be kept secret.

“MBRIT has established sponsorship arrangements under which it will fund the travel costs of Mr Gibb and his party to attend the opening,” the report stated.

“These costs are expected to be in the order of $100,000.

“These arrangements have MBRIT paying the costs associated with a central element of the Bee Gees Way opening, (i.e. the attendance of Mr Gibb).

“If these arrangements were not in place, the Council would have to incur the costs itself or determine an alternative way to fund the costs.

“Officers perceive a real risk of Mr Gibb’s attendance at the opening being jeopardised if issues around how his attendance is being paid for become the subject of public comment or debate.”

It is not known who was behind the “sponsorship arrangements” referred to in the report.

Cr Sutherland declared a “perceived conflict of interest” at the May 2015 council meeting where the plans were discussed and did not vote.

No reason for the declaration was given, but a councillor who took part in the meeting, who did not want to be named, said the understanding was that it had been made because the mayor and Gibb were friends.

The report to councillors recommended the council separately pay MBRIT to plan and organise the opening of the Bee Gees Way, including the details of Gibb’s participation, at a cost to ratepayers of up to $75,000.

Councillors were told that the need for confidentiality around the arrangements for Gibb’s attendance made it “impractical or disadvantageous” to invite quotes or tenders for the contract to plan and deliver the event.

The Bee Gees Way opening took place during the Redcliffe Festival, which was also run by MBRIT.

The owner of the bayside restaurant where the media lunch was held said senior council staff had told him to bill another entity controlled by Mr Newcombe, Our Village Foundation, for the $13,000 cost of that event.

Anti-corruption investigators have been examining the relationship between MBRIT, Mr Newcombe and the council, focusing on a contract to outsource council events to MBRIT, awarded in 2016 without a tender.

The deal was later extended in controversial circumstances, making it worth more than $20 million, the council’s biggest single procurement and MBRIT’s largest source of income.