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Before Gail Connolly was appointed to lead the staff of the City of Parramatta, an employee informed the council’s second-most powerful staffer of a list of names he should expect would soon work at the council, an anti-corruption inquiry has heard. The names mentioned all soon had jobs.
Justin Mulder was the chief of staff at the western Sydney council when Connolly became its chief executive officer in 2023, and witnessed “the hollowing-out of the organisation and its capability”, he told Wednesday’s inquiry into the former boss and other staff.
In Operation Navarra, the Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating multiple allegations against Connolly, including that she spied on staff and a councillor, and used confidential information for improper purposes, including rewarding allies and removing critics or perceived opponents.
It is also investigating whether two colleagues, Roxanne Thornton and Jones-Blayney, intentionally subverted recruitment practices to benefit friends and associates. The trio was known as the “Pink Ladies” or “Pink Ops”, Counsel Assisting Joanna Davidson, SC, said in her opening address.
The “Pink Ops” talked among staff about playing netball, socialising outside of work and going on holidays together, Mulder said. He had heard from a colleague and other staff at Ryde Council that, on one holiday, they had planned a restructure of Parramatta Council.
The relationship between Thornton and Connolly was “extremely close”, Mulder said. “[Thornton] was almost always in Gail’s office, there were frequent meetings … She conveyed to me her loyalty to Gail, and that when Gail had been moved on from a previous role … she had quit in protest.”
Soon after Connolly arrived, Mulder was told by a colleague that Thornton had been telling colleagues she was “going to have my role”.
“Roxanne didn’t hide the fact that she was telling people she was going to have my role,” Mulder said. “I’d heard repeatedly that Roxanne was communicating with colleagues that she was going to be in that role and was speaking with a high degree of confidence.”
Connolly had created a new legal governance position and “strongly encouraged” Mulder to apply for it, he said. He didn’t apply for it because he didn’t have a law degree. The job requirement had no requirement for a law degree or a tertiary degree.
“She said, ‘You don’t need to have a legal qualification, you just need to be a great manager,’” he told the inquiry. He did not accept her explanation and suspected Connolly’s motivation in having Mulder move was “that I would make way for Ms Thornton”.
Thornton, whom the commission heard held no tertiary qualifications, was appointed to the role.
Then, Connolly restructured the organisation and created a new “group manager” role that took in Mulder’s chief-of-staff roles as well as governance, lord mayor and CEO duties. There was a one-week, internal-only recruitment process, and Mulder said Connolly told him she wanted Mulder and Thornton to apply. Mulder said he did not apply for the combined role because he thought the process was tilted in Thornton’s favour. He was later offered a job at a lower level. He eventually took a redundancy deed, which included a mutual non-disparagement clause.
“I was concerned I would be disparaged after I left the organisation,” he said, “I’d overheard negative conversations about previous staff who had left the organisation.”
The hearing continues.
More to come.
Anthony Segaert is the Parramatta bureau chief at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously an urban affairs reporter.Connect via X or email.From our partners
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