Bike hire operator brought to tears recounting call from Andrew Barr's office

Ms Edwards detailed years of what she said were stressful, unprofessional and frustrating negotiations with the Land Development Agency. In early 2015, she said her husband Martin Shanahan had called Mr Barr's office and spoken with Tony Hodges, telling him that negotiations were going in circles, the agency was refusing to put anything in writing, and the couple was reluctant to keep meeting.

Later in the day Mr Hodges called them back, speaking to her husband in a call she could hear.

"He raised his voice and he said if you don't agree to sit down and meet with the LDA things are going to get a lot tougher for you," Ms Edwards told an ACT parliamentary inquiry into the agency's land deals at West Basin and Glebe Park on Friday.

Mr Hodges joined Mr Barr's office in late 2014 after resigning from then prime minister Julia Gillard's office over a 2012 security scare, when he alerted protesters to Tony Abbott's presence at an Australia Day event the Lobby. Asked for comment on Ms Edwards' allegation, Mr Barr's office said Mr Hodges no longer worked for Mr Barr, having left after the election.

Ms Edwards said her dealings with the agency had taken a huge toll on her family.

As a former public servant, she had been "astonished" at the lack "procedure and paper trails".

"I did feel that a lot of the behaviour was hopefully mostly incompetent. But if you are the sort of person who thinks too hard about things maybe you could come to the conclusion that there was a bit of a malicious intent in there at times," she said.

She also detailed the role of Ben Parsons, a broker who called her without warning in August 2015 after negotiations broke down and offered to help. It has been revealed that Mr Parsons knew land agency head David Dawes.

Ms Edwards said she had been "baffled" but things "couldn't really get any worse" and Mr Parsons had offered to help free of charge saying he would try to get a payment from the agency.

"To this day without him I don't know where we would be", she said.

"I have absolutely no doubt that Mr Parsons' motivation was completely wholesome."

Mr Parsons spoke publicly for the first time on Friday, giving evidence at the inquiry. He said he had met Mr Dawes when he returned to Canberra in late 2014, when a friend had told him that Mr Dawes was building a new house in Reid and might be selling his current house.

He had "cold called" Mr Dawes and inspected the house a couple of times, eventually deciding not to buy it but instead to negotiate a sale for his brother. Mr Dawes had decided to go to auction in early August 2015, where his brother had bid unsuccessfully.

Mr Parsons said he had not discussed the Mr Spokes situation with Mr Dawes before calling Ms Edwards on August 23 or 24 and offering to help.

"Are you in the habit of randomly ringing up people and offering them assistance on the basis of radio interviews?" Liberal chairwoman Vicki Dunne asked hm.

He responded that he was used to cold-calling from a career in law then investment banking where "seeking work was very much an opportunistic endeavour". But his motivation in this case had been to help.

He had been "touched by the frustration" he had heard in her voice on the radio and believed he could help. He had negotiated directly with Mr Dawes over the rest of 2015, meeting one-on-one, other than one meeting where the ACT government solicitor had also been present, he said.

Mr Parsons said he had negotiated payment with Mr Dawes, who had agreed to pay his fees "as long as they're not hundreds of thousands of dollars". He had been paid $43,000.

But Mr Parsons insisted he had not been motivated by the money but by a desire to help.

He also stressed that "I didn't do the work for the government; I did the work for Mr Spokes. I think it is a very important distinction."

Ms Edwards said talks had started in 2011, when the government had called saying her site was needed for the new convention centre. (The current plan is to use it for apartments.)

Then in early 2014, she had a call from consultant Tania Parkes asking if she would pose for "happy snaps". In April 2014 the agency wrote to her saying the lease would be "extinguished".

The couple had become increasingly nervous in 2014, unable to get a response from letters to then planning minister Mick Gentleman. In November 2014, the agency had called a meeting which included Mr Hodges from Mr Barr's office, and she had been told the government wanted their block by Christmas. The call with Mr Hodges followed in February.

In May they had to stop paying their lawyer because costs were mounting. In August, they were told they could stay put and the government would develop around them. They were told there would be a 5 metre hoarding built around the business, with a tunnel of hoardings leading to the lakeside bike path - an idea Ms Edwards said was unworkable and dangerous given the hundreds of children hiring bikes on school trips.

The couple had gone to the media in desperation and after a radio interview had received a call from Mr Parsons, who reopened negotiations, with a $1.1 million settlement in January 2016.