New South Wales’ anti-corruption watchdog has been shown text messages which suggest Angus Taylor “had paid some money to the Reformers … or was refusing to”, according to the lawyer assisting the inquiry.
Taylor, the federal opposition leader, is not named in Icac’s allegations and has previously denied making payments to the hard-right factional group the Reformers.
Jean-Claude Perrottet, a member, was on Thursday read text messages sent by Reformer cofounder Christian Ellis in September 2021. Ellis says the group has “zero dollars at the moment” in one message.
Jean-Claude asks why and Ellis replies: “Because Michael O’Hara hates the vax campaign, and Angus Taylor hates Rob.”
The counsel assisting Icac, Juliet Curtin, asked: “That seems to be suggesting that Mr Taylor had paid some money to the Reformers too, doesn’t it, or was refusing to?”
Jean-Claude replied: “It sounds like that’s the suggestion.” Curtin then said: “Do you know anything about that?”
“Look, I’ve heard it come up [at the inquiry], but until that came up, I hadn’t recalled that at all,” the younger brother of the former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet said.
Dominic Perrottet is not named in Icac’s allegations and is not accused of wrongdoing.
The inquiry has previously heard evidence, including from Reformers cofounder Robert Assaf, that hotelier Michael O’Hara threatened to end an arrangement in which he paid lobbying company Beckington for Reformers factional work after the group adopted an anti-vaccination stance.
Inquiry hears intercepted calls
Late on Thursday, the inquiry heard intercepted phone calls from fugitive property developer Jean Nassif for the first time since the opening day of the inquiry.
The corruption watchdog is examining an allegation that between 2020 and 2023, Nassif and his company Toplace made prohibited donations solicited or accepted by Ellis, Jeremy Greenwood and Charles Perrottet in exchange for the pursuit of outcomes sought by Nassif.
They including the damage to the career of former Liberal minister and Baulkham Hills MP David Elliott and the removal of the then building commissioner David Chandler, but the inquiry has yet to focus extensively on the allegation.
On Thursday afternoon, Jean-Claude Perrottet was played three phone calls between him and Nassif in 2021, when he was managing shares for Nassif while working at Medallion Financial.
In one call, Nassif can be heard asking Jean-Claude Perrottet to withdraw “100” from his portfolio to give to “to your brother, to Jeremy or Chris” for “preselection”.
Asked about which brother Nassif was proposing to give $100,000, Jean-Claude Perrottet said he didn’t know.
“I don’t know what he’s talking about, to be honest with you,” he said, rejecting the suggestion the money was to support the Reformers recruitment work, describing the call as “nonsense”.
He was played another call, previously heard on the first day of the inquiry, in which Nassif can be heard to claim that he “fucked him [David Elliott] sideways”, forcing “the boys” to get rid of the former Liberal MP’s seat of Baulkham Hills, and had sent “Castle Hill fucking hundreds of new members”.
Jean-Claude Perrottet described the call, in which he also thanked Nassif for “all the support for the family”, as “nonsensical”.
“That’s a throwaway comment that gets used all the time,” he said of his remark to Nassif about his family, saying he was not aware of Nassif providing financial support to bring new Liberal members to the Castle Hill branch.
He described a third phone call, in which Nassif complained about Chandler, who had been scrutinising his developments for defects, as “crazy talk”.
In the call, Nassif allegedly said he “had been promised that the commissioner will be fucking stopped or chased or fucking done something to him”, asking if Jean-Claude Perrottet “can take a message to Charlie or to Dom, the building commissioner, we need to stop him”, and making a subsequent request to “get Charlie to do something please”.
Under questioning, Jean-Claude Perrottet accepted that Nassif had made frequent references to his brother, Charles Perrottet, but said he had never heard of his brother agreeing to do anything for Nassif of the nature discussed.
Charles Perrottet, who has been named in Icac’s allegation, has previously denied any wrongdoing. Nassif, who fled Australia for regional Lebanon in 2022, is not expected to appear at Icac’s inquiry and has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Questions over monthly payments
Jean-Claude, earlier on Thursday, told the corruption inquiry he did not know why he received monthly payments of $5,000 from a lobbying company alleged to have accepted prohibited political donations.
The corruption watchdog is investigating whether the Reformers solicited or accepted illegal donations for the recruitment or renewal of members to the Liberal party.
That practice, known as branch stacking, is not illegal.
Curtin asked about invoices for four monthly payments of $5,000 and one payment of $5,500 from registered lobbying company Beckington between April and August 2021.
The inquiry has previously heard that Beckington, set up by Ellis and Greenwood in 2019, received payments from prohibited donor and hotelier O’Hara for factional work after issuing fake invoices for consulting advice.
Asked about the “substantial injections of cash” into his account, Jean-Claude said: “I’m honestly trying to do my best here. I honestly don’t recall why I might have done some work for them [Beckington].”
“I don’t know. I mean, it could have been for work. I mean, maybe, maybe Christian owed me money. I don’t know,” Jean-Claude told the inquiry.
The commission had previously heard Jean-Claude Perrotet travelled to Fiji to avoid summons to appear at a parliamentary inquiry in 2023 which preceded Icac’s probe.
On Thursday he told the commission: “Yes, I went to Fiji. I was not in a good place, and I didn’t want to partake in what I believed was a sham inquiry.”
The watchdog revealed its witnesses for next week, including Greenwood, who has been named in two allegations.
Last week, the inquiry heard that a screenshot of a message from Dallas McInerney, the then chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW, was sent to Reformers members in which McInerney said he planned to “shake down Angus for 10k” during a breakfast meeting with ministers.
The message was allegedly sent in March 2021 when Taylor was energy minister in the Morrison government.
Dylan Whitelaw, another Reformers associate, was read a later-intercepted text message in which he claimed McInerney had told him he had secured a commitment from Taylor for a “15k injection and a 3k monthly donation!”
Whitelaw couldn’t recall sending the message and told the inquiry he would be “very surprised” if Taylor made any contribution. McInerney, who is a factional ally of Taylor, will appear at the inquiry next week.
Contacted for comment on Thursday, Taylor’s office pointed to previous statements made by the Liberal leader: “I have already made my position clear. No payments were made. The commission has made no allegation that I engaged in any wrongdoing or unlawful conduct. It would be wrong and misleading to suggest otherwise.”
Icac’s inquiry continues.
