Senior politicians supported young NSW Liberal power brokers trying to shift party to right, corruption watchdog hears | New South Wales

Senior politicians in the New South Wales Liberal party have supported the work of a group of young conservative power brokers who are trying to seize control of the party and move it to the right, the corruption watchdog has heard.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) began Operation Rosny hearings on Monday into corruption allegations against people associated with the NSW Liberal party.

It is investigating three allegations, including allegations that Liberal figures “solicited or accepted” undeclared or in excess of limits donations, including from banned donors, to recruit or renew members of the party, a practice known as “branch hoarding”.

Peggy Dwyer SC, the barrister assisting the commission, said in her opening statement that this “core group” of young Liberal staff and lobbyists who called themselves “Reformers” included lobbyist Christian Ellis, consultant Robert Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of former Liberal prime minister Dominic Perrottet.

Another man, lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood, allegedly made it easier for the Reformers to receive funding.

Dwyer said the evidence would show “some senior politicians in the NSW Liberal party supported the work of the Reformers by speaking at their events or otherwise facilitating the work they did on branch recruitment and renewal”.

He said the group hosted recruitment events where special guests including former Liberal prime minister Tony Abbott, broadcaster Alan Jones and Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney spoke about “conservative and/or religious issues”.

He said a document drafted while Ellis was a staffer in federal Nationals senator Matt Canavan’s office “set out the mission of the NSW Reformers, which I quote: ‘to take back our nation through good government’.”

Dwyer said the document suggested 5,000 Christian conservatives join NSW Liberal party branches and thereby “take control of the NSW division of the Liberal party”.

Dwyer claimed the plans involved taking every winnable seat in the state election to be held by a member of the party’s conservative wing, which controls 75% of the state government and 60% of the state council. Before the 2019 elections, it was stated that 11 out of 50 state representatives and 26.2% of the party’s state council were from the right.

Abbott, Jones and Canavan are not charged with any crimes. Dwyer said branch hoarding does not constitute corruption per se, but “the problem is that those funds come from prohibited political donations that exceed the applicable limit and/or come from a prohibited donor.”

He said the commission would investigate whether companies, including Greenwood and Beckington, the former registered lobbying firm formed after Ellis left Canavan’s office, were used to solicit illegal donations for branch-stacking efforts.

The donations included those allegedly made on his behalf by hotelier and banned donor Michael O’Hara’s company, Paslibdan Pty Ltd, as well as donations allegedly made by NSW Catholic Schools, arranged and approved by McInerney.

Dwyer said nine days before Beckington signed up in July 2019, Greenwood texted McInerney to say “thank you for all the help you’ve given Christian and I. It’s put us in a really good place.” McInerney allegedly replied: “Happy day.”

NSW Catholic Schools was Beckington’s first client, and Dwyer claimed that “purported payments to servants for which no material services were provided… amounted to fraud”. He said it was not suggested that Catholic Schools NSW was responsible as an organization or that its board members were aware.

McInerney is a factional ally of Angus Taylor, who has not been charged with any crimes. In a statement According to the Sydney Morning Herald On July 2, McInerney said he was offering to step aside “to allow Catholic Schools of NSW to continue its important mission.”

illegal property developer

The corruption watchdog is examining the second allegation that between 2020 and 2023, illegal property developer Jean Nassif and his company, Toplace, made prohibited donations requested or accepted by the Liberals “in exchange for achieving the results Mr. Nassif sought.”

The allegations, which were investigated by a parliamentary inquiry in 2023 before Icac’s current review into “possible offenses under the Electoral Finance Act”, were first made public in a speech to parliament by Liberal Kellyville MP Ray Williams in 2022.

Nassif and his company claimed “significant sums of money were paid” to senior members of the party to appoint new councilors to Hills Shire council in support of Toplace’s applications. After Williams’ speech, then-Liberal prime minister Dominic Perrottet conveyed the allegations to Icac.

On Monday, Dwyer revealed that legally intercepted communications, including WhatsApp messages and phone calls between Nassif and Perrottet’s two brothers, Jean-Claude and Charles Perrottet, were forwarded to Icac by police the day before Williams’ speech.

Dominic Perrottet has not been charged with any wrongdoing, while Jean-Claude and Charles Perrottet have previously denied any wrongdoing.

Dwyer said the parliamentary inquiry had failed to reach definitive conclusions about the allegations because “key figures at the center of the allegations have abandoned jurisdiction and/or deliberately avoided co-operating with the process servers”.

He said Charles Perrottet was living in Victoria and refused to avoid returning to NSW, while Jean-Claude Perrottet went to Fiji “with the financial support of others named in the claim”. “Ellis made significant efforts to avoid process servers by remaining close to the NSW-Victorian border,” he said.

Dwyer said Ellis had since moved to England and had so far refused to give oral evidence to Icac’s inquiry, citing “family responsibilities and a different time zone”.

During his opening statement, he read transcripts of legally intercepted communications and played recordings of phone calls. He gave an example of an exchange between Greenwood and Jean-Claude Perrottet regarding funds allegedly taken from NSW Catholic Schools.

On January 12, 2023, Greenwood allegedly wrote to Jean-Claude: “Hey, so you know how good I treated you, helped you, gave you all your dirty school money, and put up with your fucking whining?”

Dwyer said Jean-Claude wrote back: “Don’t put that in writing.”

Greenwood allegedly replied: “He’s deleting.”

“This message is one of thousands the commission has obtained,” Dwyer said.

The investigation will consider a third allegation that two Labor Strathfield councillors, Sharangan Maheswaran and Karen Pensabene, engaged in conduct against councilor Matthew Blackmore that included “dishonest or partial discharge of their official functions and/or breach of public trust, including conduct that may involve blackmail” and possible breaches of the Surveillance Devices Act.

Michael O’Hara will appear as a witness on Monday in the first of at least eight weeks of hearings. Former Liberal staffers Dylan Whitelaw and Robert Assaf are expected to appear later in the week.