The newly appointed chair of the state government's Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Helen Coonan, co-chairs a major lobbying company which lists among its clients the developer of the Darling Harbour precinct owned by the foreshore authority.

Ms Coonan - a former senior Howard government minister - is co-chair and a director of GRACosway, a firm on the NSW lobbyists' register which lists Lend Lease as a client.

Lend Lease is the driving force in the Darling Harbour Live consortium, currently undertaking a $3.4 billion redevelopment of 20 hectares of prize harbourside land owned by SHFA at the southern end of Darling Harbour.

The huge project includes a new convention centre, five-star hotel and several apartment blocks. As well as owning the land, SHFA is the place manager on behalf of the NSW government in the project.

Ms Coonan, a one-time Liberal deputy Senate leader, also sits on the board of James Packer's Crown Resorts, a key player in the adjoining Barangaroo development, though SHFA currently has no decision-making role in relation to Barangaroo.

Ms Coonan denies that her public and private board positions have generated any conflicts of interest.

Finance minister Dominic Perrottet appointed Ms Coonan to the SHFA board in June, saying she was a businesswoman of "high standing and wide-ranging experience".

He said that, in picking her for the role, "appropriate procedures were followed and relevant issues considered, including conflict and probity checks".

But when asked for a reaction to the appointment by Fairfax Media, Opposition Leader Luke Foley called on the Premier to appoint a new chair of SHFA immediately, saying "this is a clear case of a conflict of interest".

"Instead of looking after Liberal Party mates, Mike Baird needs to restore public confidence by appointing a suitably qualified non-political person to this important position".

Ms Coonan's SHFA post sits uneasily with the spirit of the government's 2013 Public Service Commission "appointment standards" which seek to limit the eligibility of lobbyists to sit on government boards.

Clause 3 of those standards says lobbyists cannot sit on any government board that has "functions which relate to any matter on which the lobbyist has represented the interests of third parties in the last twelve months"

A spokesman for the Finance Department said that while GRACosway was on the list of registered lobbyists, Ms Coonan herself was not a registered lobbyist despite being co-chair and a director of the company's board. The department had confirmed GRACosway "was not involved in lobbying or other advocacy activities on behalf of any client in relation to the lands for which SHFA is responsible".

Ms Coonan told Fairfax Media that GRACosway "does not and has not provided services in relation to SHFA properties for Lend Lease" .

Greens NSW MP John Kaye said the "while the appointment of Ms Coonan might have scraped through the probity tests and public service standards, it has done so on a series of technicalities".

"In the average voter's view of conflicts of interest, Ms Coonan may be exposed to the situations that create the perception that she has to compromise either her private sector roles or her responsibilities to the public".

He said her SHFA post could give her a "substantial say in [future] decisions that might directly affect Lend Lease", a view shared by several senior former public servants contacted by Fairfax Media.

The department said that while SHFA owned the Darling Harbour redevelopment precinct it was another government body, Infrastructure NSW, which was currently "exercising SHFA's functions" at the site. However SHFA is due to resume management in the future and has long-term over-arching responsibility for the site.

Mr Baird said all his government's board appointments were "based on merit; and, in contrast to the practice under Labor, all appointments require the approval of Cabinet."

But Mr Foley said the appointment demonstrated that the Baird government was "ignoring the fundamentals of corporate governance".

What is the SHFA?

The Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority manages more than a billion dollars' worth of some of the state's most significant assets, including the historic Rocks area (where it has 117 heritage-listed buildings) and Darling Harbour.

Its job is to "protect and enhance" the foreshore area, manage events and secure the area's "orderly and economic development." It also owns land, parks and wharves at Pyrmont, sites at White Bay and Ballast Point, and manages other waterfront assets around the Harbour for other agencies.

The Baird government has moved SHFA from the planning to finance portfolios. In 2014 SHFA had a broad-based, six-person board. The new board comprises Ms Coonan and three senior bureaucrats, including the head of Mr Perrottet's department. There is concern among some urban planners that the government wants to start selling properties in the Rocks precinct.

Who Is Helen Coonan?

Helen Coonan, 67, trained as a barrister and solicitor before becoming a senior member of John Howard's ministry.

She entered the Senate in 1996, the year in which he became Prime Minister, and served as his assistant Treasurer, and minister for Communications. She was elevated to the post of deputy government leader in the Senate in 2006.

In her valedictory speech to parliament in 2011, Ms Coonan paid tribute to Mr Howard and his Treasurer, Peter Costello . She said she was the first woman to have held a Treasury portfolio and "the first woman [at the time] to join a Federal Coalition Government's leadership team."

A former president of the Watsons Bay Branch of the Liberal Party, Ms Coonan has racked up an impressive number of board positions since leaving politics. As well as her positions on the Sydney Harbour Foreshore Authority, Crown Resorts and GRACosway boards, she is a trustee of the Sydney Opera House Trust, a director of Snowy Hydro Limited, a member of the Advisory Council of JP Morgan and chairs the Crown Resorts Foundation.

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