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EXCLUSIVE
The mayor of NSW’s Hawkesbury Council — who was the 2022 Federal Liberal candidate for the nation’s most marginal electorate — and her property entrepreneur partner have filed domestic violence orders against each other.
Liberal Hawkesbury mayor Sarah McMahon, the Liberal candidate for the seat of Macquarie at the last federal election, and her partner Matthew Bennett have each lodged apprehended violence applications, court document show.
Both cases are set down for first mention at the Windsor Local Court tomorrow morning.
McMahon, until recently a NSW Liberal Party vice president, and Bennett have been the subject of ongoing political controversy over Bennett’s property interests.
The pair made headlines ahead of the 2022 federal election over allegations Bennett was a “property developer”, which McMahon had not disclosed on her pecuniary interest register.
Bennett co-owns BCM Property Group, which on its website spruiked an “end to end” role in the property industry.
The NSW Office of Local Government, under the former Perrottet Government, later found Bennett was not a “property developer” under the relevant legislation, and so McMahon did not breach the code of conduct applying to councillors.
McMahon and Bennett did not respond to requests for comment from The Klaxon yesterday.
Source: NSW Courts
The court filings show a police officer filed an Apprehended Violence Application on behalf of Matthew Bennett against Sarah Ann McMahon; while a second officer filed a similar application on behalf of Sarah Ann McMahon against Matthew Bennett.
No further information is provided and the timeline of the complaints is not stated, although Bennett’s action against McMahon carries an earlier court case number.
At the 2022 federal election, McMahon who was at the time known as Sarah Richards, a name from a previous marriage, contested the federal seat of Macquarie, which covers the Hawkesbury River region and Blue Mountains.
The seat had been the most marginal in the nation, held by the ALP by just 0.2%, but the ALP’s Susan Templeman was re-elected on a strong margin of 7.8%, in a broader shift to Labor.
Weeks before the 2022 election McMahon toured the then flood-ravaged Hawkesbury region with then Prime Minister Scott Morrison.
McMahon had also unsuccessfully contested the federal seat for the Liberal Party at the 2019 election.
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Hawkesbury mayor Sarah McMahon. Source: Hawkesbury Council
A long-time Hawkesbury councillor, McMahon has been mayor since August 2022, following the resignation of Liberal mayor Patrick Conolly.
Bennett’s property interests have continued to stir controversy at the council.
In May McMahon expelled Hawkesbury councillor Nathan Zamprogno from a council meeting amid a stouch connected to a Facebook page run by his partner, reports the Hawkesbury Post.
The page, titled Hawkesbury City Councillor Watch, reportedly “uses publicly available data about Council meetings and presents it in a simple format”.
In April it published a report stating McMahon had the “most absences from council meetings in the current term”, having missed 10.7% of votes over 22 months.
“More than half Cr McMahon’s absences (5.8%) were due to her recusal from votes for conflicts of interest” and were connected to Bennett’s “various property interests”, the Hawkesbury Post reports.
McMahon reportedly put forward an unexpected minute to “compel councillors” to disclose and involvement they “or their extended family may have with social media platforms or publications disclosing the affairs of the Council, its members or staff”.
Sarah McMahon and Matthew Bennett. Source: Facebook
Bennett’s BCM Property Group describes itself as a “multi-faceted property business specialising in Real Estate Sales, Leasing and Project Management”.
“Led by Matthew Bennett, our boutique team is vastly experienced in all property matters,” its website states.
“Our Project Team manages all facets of the property development process including land acquisition, development approvals and construction of civil, residential and commercial projects”.
Last month McMahon told media she had concerns of a lack of flood mitigation strategies for the region and said NSW ALP Premier Chris Minns had refused to meet with her for over a year over her issue.
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