Mr Dawes was questioned in a parliamentary inquiry on Wednesday about his relationships with people involved in the Glebe Park, Mr Spokes bike hire, and paddle-boat hire land negotiations. All three were the subject of a highly critical report from Auditor-General Maxine Cooper.

Liberal leader Alistair Coe asked Mr Dawes whether he had declared any conflicts of interest over the deals, and what relationship he had had with Ben Parsons, the broker who offered to represent Mr Spokes owners Jillian Edwards and Martin Shanahan in their negotiations with Mr Dawes.

Mr Parsons called the pair after Ms Edwards did a radio interview, offering to represent them free of charge. He was later paid by the Land Development Agency, in an arrangement the agency has defended as in line with practice of paying legal and other fees.

Mr Dawes revealed that he had known Mr Parsons beforehand, having "bumped into" him around land, including when Mr Parsons and also his brother had looked at buying Mr Dawes's house in Reid. But he had been "surprised" when Mr Parsons had sent him an email on behalf of Mr Spokes requesting a meeting.

Mr Dawes also had links in the other two land deals. He was a former business partner in Federation real estate of Graham Potts and Richard Tindale, two of the four businessmen paid $3.8 million for a block of land in Glebe Park. And he went to school with Pat Seears, owner of the paddle-boat lease, who was paid $1 million.

But Mr Dawes said he had had hardly anything to do with Mr Potts since they were in business together. "Is that a conflict?" he asked.

"I'm wondering why I would have had to declare interest. The fact that Pat Seears and I went to school in 1966, is that a conflict of interest? The fact that he was a member of the MBA when I was executive director of the MBA, the fact that he was ... a sponsor of the MBA, is that a conflict of interest?" he asked Mr Coe.

"I think actually I've dealt with things very well. If you talk to some of the private sector people, they think that I'm a bit of a hardarse, excuse the expression ... Why don't you just spit it out, what you want to ask me?"

The purchase of Mr Seears' lease was criticised by Dr Cooper, who found it had been valued at $50,000 and $100,000, but Mr Seears had been paid $1 million based on a third valuation from Colliers, parts of which Dr Cooper described as "almost meaningless".

Mr Dawes was also questioned about the Land Development Agency's close relationship with Colliers, including his arrangement for Colliers principal Paul Powderly to mentor deputy Dan Stewart.

Colliers also brokered the Glebe Park land deal, providing informal advice that the land was worth $3.6-$3.8 million and organising the sale negotiation in Colliers offices, a decision criticised by Dr Cooper.

Mr Stewart, also giving evidence on Wednesday, ran the Glebe Park negotiation. He said with hindsight he wished the meeting had not been held at the Colliers office.

Mr Stewart said while the negotiation had been based on no formal valuation, Mr Powderly's experience and standing in the industry made his informal advice reliable, and it had been borne out by subsequent valuations.

Asked whether Mr Potts, representing the land owners, would have known that the agency was negotiating around Mr Powderly's suggested price of $3.6 to $3.8 million, Mr Stewart said "I choose to believe not".

Mr Powderly defended his role and said he was disappointed Colliers had been "dragged through" the affair with suggestions of "dodgy work". Colliers had only been asked to provide initial advice, not a formal valuation, and the advice should never have been treated as a valuation for negotiation. It had been "a bit of a view" to allow the agency to decide whether to pursue the purchase and get a formal valuation, he said.

He had subsequently told the agency that "there seriously need to be some people that understand what is a valuation and what its not", he said.

The valuation advice is at the centre of another audit finding, when Dr Cooper found the document had been "manipulated" before it was released under freedom of information laws. Dr Cooper said Mr Powderly had offered in an email to change the title of the document from "discussion paper" to "valuation advice". But on Wednesday Mr Powderly said the request to change the title had come from Land Development Agency official John Mason.

"I got a phone call .. saying we should have got valuation advice. I said, no we haven't got any valuation, we did this initial paper, and he asked whether we could change the heading on the document."

Mr Powderly said he had only discovered later that there had been freedom of information request.

He declined to answer questions about the boat and bike hire businesses, saying that work had been done by Colliers' valuation arm, and he had only been asked to appear on the subject of Glebe Park.