Bid for new St Clair land swap parliamentry inquiry Mayor Kirsten Alexander with her children L-R Leon, 5, and Kara, 7, at St Clair Reserve. THE state's upper house will be asked to consider launching a new inquiry into the St Clair land swap. The Opposition's deputy leader in the Legislative Council, Michelle Lensink, said she had begun to lobby upper house independents and members of the Greens and Family First, to support a motion for a select committee to investigate the 2009 deal. This is despite another ­investigation by State ­Ombudsman Richard Bingham on the same issue in 2011. Mrs Lensink said the committee would finally make public all dealings surrounding the former Charles Sturt Council's decision to swap with the State Government a 4.7ha piece of St Clair Reserve, Woodville, for a piece of the adjacent former Actil factory site on Actil Ave. "It is all about transparency and placing the issues and comments on the public record through Hansard," Mrs Lensink said. She said the committee would hear from many of the same people who testified to the Ombudsman's inquiry in 2011. The inquiry found several councillors had potential conflicts of interest in the ­decision to revoke the ­reserve's community land status. But the investigation, which cost about $500,000 to conduct to conduct, on top of $226,100 in legal fees to the council, cleared Labor Party members of allegations of bias. The swap paved the way for the State Government to develop the land with apartments, shops and offices on the Woodville Rd Park. The council has already used the former factory land to build a new reserve as part of the separate 1200-home St Clair housing development on the former Cheltenham Racecourse site. Mrs Lensink said the committee would also investigate issues stemming from the swap, such as a push for the park to be preserved as a war memorial site. Charles Sturt Mayor Kirsten Alexander said a select committee would help shed light on the land swap. "It is clear the community has a lot of concern over the process at the time (of the land swap) and this will finally allow the truth to be told in a public forum," Ms Alexander said. I have been disappointed about the lack of action taken following the ombudsman report considering he found there were serious concerns with some councillors having a conflict of interest. Councillor Tolley Wasylenko said the land swap had already been thoroughly investigated by the Ombudsman and another inquiry would be a waste of taxpayers' money. But Mrs Lensink said the cost of the new inquiry would be minimal. She expected her motion, tabled last week, to be voted on in the coming months.