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The Independent Commission Against Corruption’s exploration of the nexus between property developers and the NSW Liberal Party has been the worst-kept secret in Sydney for almost three years.
Everyone in and around politics knew public hearings were coming, but when the ICAC on Wednesday finally announced details of what lay ahead, the sheer scale of the potential fallout was clear – and much bigger than many feared.
The allegations are jaw-dropping. The ICAC will investigate whether fugitive Sydney property developer Jean Nassif, his failed company Toplace, and Liberal Party apparatchiks or lobbyists Christian Ellis, Jeremy Greenwood, Robert Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet were all involved in corrupt donation schemes.
It will also examine whether Ellis, Greenwood and another brother of former Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, Charles, were involved in separate allegedly dodgy donations deals designed to damage the political career of cabinet minister David Elliott and trigger the sacking of building commissioner David Chandler, who was standing in the way of Toplace’s development ambitions.
And in a twist, the commission will investigate whether the highly influential Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney – a Liberal Party powerbroker and aspiring MP – used money from his organisation to help prop up alleged branch-stacking schemes.
The eight-week inquiry, codenamed Operation Rosny and due to start on July 29, looms as a dangerous black hole. The gravity of the broad probe risks sucking in not only those named on Wednesday, but many others not yet identified. Macquarie Street is rife with speculation about who will get caught up and what went down between 2019 and when the Liberal Party lost government in 2023. If even half of it is true, the opposition is in for a wild ride.
The ICAC deep-dives have a habit of ensnaring unexpected casualties. Just ask disgraced former premier Gladys Berejiklian, whose downfall was triggered by a seemingly minor corruption probe into her former boyfriend Daryl Maguire. Or Barry O’Farrell. Or Nick Greiner.
The ICAC’s media release on Wednesday already names some big names, but hints at way more to come. The witness list will be a who’s who of the NSW Liberal Party. It could include serving and former MPs. It’s important to note that the former premier is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Operation Rosny would be damaging for the party at the best of times. But for the ICAC hearings to play out just six months before the state election is a disaster. Voters are about to get an insight into how factional power-plays are strangling the Liberal Party to death. Legitimate donors will flee if the hearings uncover even the faintest suggestion senior party figures were or still are corrupt.
This is a real test for Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane. Sloane seized the job in November last year, promising to restore the party’s fortunes. She has had little impact as it is, and must now help manage the gravest threat to the party and its reputation in many years.
She failed an early test of leadership on Wednesday by initially refusing to insist that Liberal Party members named by ICAC were suspended. In a limp statement, all the party would say was that it “expects its members to meet the high standards demanded by this organisation, our membership and the public”.
By contrast, Premier Chris Minns has written to Labor HQ asking it to suspend the memberships of Strathfield councillor Karen Pensabene and former councillor Sharangan Maheswaran, who have been caught on the edges of the inquiry. The ICAC is investigating whether Pensabene and Maheswaran – a lawyer and one-time consultant for Toplace – engaged in unacceptable conduct towards fellow councillor Matthew Blackmore, including potential blackmail and breaches of the Surveillance Devices Act.
Sloane eventually relented and wrote to the party late on Wednesday afternoon to ask for Liberal memberships to be suspended. She could have taken the same rapid stance as Labor but didn’t.
Why? One theory is if she sets a precedent of suspending Liberal Party members now, she might have to spend the rest of the year dishing out the same approach to others – perhaps even MPs – who find themselves in the ICAC’s sights. It is weak leadership from someone who should know better.
Whether she likes it or not, the inquiry’s focus on local government, the Catholic schools sector, and the NSW Liberal Party will trigger uncomfortable questions.
For councils, Operation Rosny could feasibly stoke debate about whether local government should be freed from the increasingly unproductive grip of party politics.
For the Catholic Church, a forensic examination of McInerney, the Catholic Schools NSW boss, could open a Pandora’s box on the manner in which taxpayer funds are given to the church for education, and where and how that money is subsequently spent.
And for the Liberal Party, the hearings could uncover further factional brawling and dubious fundraising at a time when the organisation is locked in a fight with One Nation for its electoral survival.
The industrial-level corruption of former Labor figures Eddie Obeid, Ian Macdonald and Tony Kelly is still widely regarded as the gold standard in seismic ICAC reckonings. The NSW Liberal Party is well on its way down the same notorious path.
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Bevan Shields is a senior writer, and former editor of The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via email.From our partners
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