A long-delayed corruption watchdog report into planning decisions at a council in Melbourne's southeast is set to be published within days after a late bid to block it failed.
Millionaire property developer John Woodman on Monday sought permission to appeal an earlier Supreme Court decision dismissing his request to stop the release of the Operation Sandon report into Casey council.
But his case was thrown out by a three-justice bench in the Victorian Court of Appeal after about an hour of arguments.
"None of the proposed grounds have any merit," justices Richard Niall, Cameron Macaulay and Jack Forrest ruled.
It paves the way for the Independent Broad-based Anti-corruption Commission to release the report as early as this week, although Mr Woodman could still take his fight to the High Court.
Mr Woodman was publicly examined across six days of public hearings in November 2019 as part of the watchdog's probe into corrupt conduct involving councillors and property developers in the City of Casey.
The inquiry heard Mr Woodman or his companies donated to both major political parties before the 2018 election and he increased a donation to Labor MP Pauline Richards because she was willing to support rezoning land in Cranbourne West, a claim she denies.
Lawyers for Mr Woodman on Monday claimed the watchdog breached the IBAC Act and caused him "unreasonable damage" by examining him in public.
"Any report by the IBAC purporting to contain answers given by Mr Woodman and any comment or conclusions in the report based on such answers is not authorised under the IBAC Act, is prepared in breach of the provisions of the IBAC Act, and is invalid and ineffective," their submission read.
"In his prayer for relief, Mr Woodman seeks interlocutory and final orders, including an injunction restraining the publication of the impending IBAC report and damages resulting from the reputational damage caused by his public examination."
The IBAC Act states an examination can be held in public if there are "exceptional circumstances", it is in the public interest and won't cause "unreasonable damage" to a person's reputation, safety or wellbeing.
The Supreme Court last year blocked the watchdog from tabling its final report into Operation Sandon after Mr Woodman claimed he wasn't given a reasonable opportunity to respond to a draft version.
The court ordered IBAC to provide redacted footnotes supporting adverse findings made against him, allowing the developer further time to respond.
Mr Woodman provided his response in January but sought a fresh injunction in May after becoming aware of media stories the report's delivery to parliament was imminent, IBAC's submission said.
The primary judge dismissed the case, citing lawyers for Mr Woodman having raised no objection when informed of IBAC's decision to examine him in public and the "egregious and unexplained" three-and-a-half year delay in his complaint about it.
Justice Macaulay hammered home that point, questioning why Mr Woodman's public hearings-related compliant was not made in his initial Supreme Court bid.
"In 2022 you were complaining about the fruit of a public examination process, namely a draft report, when it now appears you maintain the public examination process should never have occurred," he said.
"So you complained about the fruit in 2022; now you say the plant should never have been planted."
Mr Woodman's barrister Gerard Nash KC replied: "Perhaps, your honour, I didn't realise that the tree was rotten."
Counsel for Mr Woodman declined to comment.
