{"id":830372,"date":"2026-07-29T03:03:14","date_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:03:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830372\/"},"modified":"2026-07-29T03:03:14","modified_gmt":"2026-07-29T03:03:14","slug":"angus-taylor-insists-he-made-no-payments-to-conservative-liberal-group-amid-icac-investigation-independent-commission-against-corruption","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/830372\/","title":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor insists he made no payments to conservative Liberal group amid Icac investigation | Independent Commission Against Corruption"},"content":{"rendered":"

Angus Taylor says no payments were made in relation to a growing corruption case involving members of the New South Wales Liberal party<\/a>, insisting he is not a party to the proceedings.<\/p>\n

Fellow Liberals also closed ranks around the federal opposition leader, sidestepping questions about the hearing by noting his statements and the fact he is not a party to the corruption inquiry\u2019s work.<\/p>\n

During a press conference in Queensland on Wednesday morning, Taylor was asked about being named as a potential donor to a conservative Liberal group known as the Reformers, now being investigated by the NSW Icac.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m not going to give a running commentary on all of this. I\u2019m not a party to the proceedings, but no payment was made,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Asked about the text message, Taylor said: \u201cNo payment was made.<\/p>\n

\u201cNo payment was made and I\u2019ll let the commission do its job.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sign up for the Breaking News Australia email<\/a><\/p>\n

Asked if he would agree to appear as a witness, he said no such request had been made and he would not discuss hypotheticals.<\/p>\n

\u201cI haven\u2019t been approached by the commission and I\u2019m not going to give a running commentary,\u201d Taylor said.<\/p>\n

Taylor, who is not accused of wrongdoing, was on Tuesday mentioned in Icac proceedings<\/a> when Dylan Whitelaw, a former NSW Liberal parliamentary staffer and associate of the Reformers, gave evidence.<\/p>\n

During the hearing, Whitelaw was shown a screenshot of a message from the Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney. The screenshot was sent by Robert Assaf, a member of the Reformers, to a group chat that included Whitelaw in March 2021.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have breakfast club with ministers this Thursday morning, who can I get an update from? Re SCD [state council delegate] progress in the last six to 12 months. I want to shake down Angus for 10k,\u201d the message, read aloud at the inquiry, allegedly said.<\/p>\n

Asked if \u201cAngus\u201d referred to Angus Taylor<\/a>, Whitelaw said: \u201cI would assume it\u2019s Angus Taylor.\u201d Whitelaw said that \u201cSCD progress\u201d referred to a Reformers plan to have as many conservative members elected to the NSW Liberals state council as possible.<\/p>\n

The group wanted more conservative policies on same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia.<\/p>\n

Whitelaw was shown another message, from days later, in which he allegedly wrote: \u201cDallas has told me he got the commitment from Angus, the 15k injection plus a 3k monthly donation!\u201d He said he did not recall sending the message, nor did he recall Taylor making a financial contribution to the Reformers.<\/p>\n

\u201cPotentially, Dallas had told me something that was incorrect. I\u2019d be very surprised if Mr Taylor made any financial contribution,\u201d Whitelaw said.<\/p>\n

skip past newsletter promotion<\/a>Free newsletter | Around 2-3 times a day<\/p>\n

Sign up to Breaking News US<\/p>\n

Get the most important news as it breaks<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

On Tuesday, a spokesperson for Taylor said he was \u201cnot a party to the matters before the commission, nor has he been approached\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThese matters should be allowed to run their course free from political interference or commentary. As such the Leader will not be providing a running commentary on any matters before the commission. Donations and fundraising activities are declared in accordance with the rules and are a matter for the Party,\u201d Taylor\u2019s office said.<\/p>\n

Taylor\u2019s deputy, senator Jane Hume, said she would not comment on the inquiry.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s most important here that we allow the commission, the inquiry to undertake its role, free of political interference and free of commentary \u2026 If there are any allegations of inappropriate use of donations, that\u2019s really a matter for the NSW division of the party,\u201d she told Sky News.<\/p>\n

\u201cDonations are always disclosed in a fully transparent and legally appropriate way.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dan Tehan, the show minister for energy, told the ABC that politicians should \u201clet Icac do its job.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shadow treasurer, Tim Wilson, on Wednesday said he had no knowledge of the case, saying Icac \u201cshould be left to do their job\u201d. Liberal MP Mary Aldred on Tuesday said Taylor was not involved in the process.<\/p>\n

The Icac hearings continue.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Angus Taylor says no payments were made in relation to a growing corruption case involving members of the…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":830373,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[64,63,44],"class_list":["post-830372","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830372","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=830372"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/830372\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/830373"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=830372"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=830372"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=830372"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}