Property development and corruption seem to be regular bedfellows in New South Wales. Maybe it\u2019s the state\u2019s convict origins. Perhaps it\u2019s because riches in property development are heavily determined by state and local government decisions. A few more floors or a rezoning can mean millions.<\/p>\n
In offices across Sydney, current and former Liberal MPs are glued to the Independent Commission Against Corruption<\/a> live feed, wondering whether one of their colleagues will be named as a person of interest in Operation Rosny.<\/p>\n So far, no elected or public official has been named as a person of interest or accused of wrongdoing, though some have been called as witnesses, including the former finance minister Damien Tudehope, former transport minister David Elliott and former fair trading minister Eleni Petinos.<\/p>\n Instead the key figures under investigation in relation to branch stacking and alleged illegal donations are those adjacent to politics: lobbyists, rightwing Liberal powerbrokers and assorted donors.<\/p>\n They include the fugitive developer Jean Nassif, who is alleged to have given $2m to three rightwing operatives: Charles Perrottet \u2013 the brother of the former premier Dominic Perrottet \u2013 and Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis, two lobbyists. The three are alleged to have shared the payment equally<\/a>.<\/p>\n The evidence presented so far raises some disturbing questions about the influence of these figures in NSW politics.<\/p>\n The focus this week has been Charles, who has been described as the \u201cmuscle\u201d in the right faction of the NSW Liberal party<\/a> and the \u201cimportant person\u201d among the group of rightwing operatives at the centre of the inquiry.<\/p>\n Charles has spent five days in the witness box. Some of the allegations being raised by counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer are astounding.<\/p>\n Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer arrives at an Icac hearing this week. Photograph: Nadir Kinani\/AAP<\/p>\n Among them are allegations that emails and texts purporting to be a \u201cshakedown\u201d seeking $5m from Toplace in return for getting the building commissioner off Nassif\u2019s back may have been an elaborate ruse designed to smear the building commissioner.<\/p>\n Charles agreed he had been briefed by Toplace executives on the allegations of a shakedown.<\/p>\n \u201cCan I suggest to you, Mr Perrottet, that it would have been obvious to you that these were shonky messages that did not appear to be legitimate evidence of any wrongdoing by the building commissioner,\u201d Dwyer said.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, until the suggestion made today, I was unaware that it potentially wasn\u2019t real,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n Despite being aware of the \u201cshakedown\u201d texts in May 2021, Charles agreed he did not take them to the police.<\/p>\n Dwyer suggested it was \u201ca serious allegation\u201d that the inaugural building commissioner was on the take and Charles did nothing to report it.<\/p>\n We have also seen \u2013 for the first time \u2013 a five-point political strategy that Charles sent to Nassif. It involved getting another Liberal figure involved to lobby for Toplace, and Charles getting a departmental insider to stop a further inspection of Toplace\u2019s Skyview apartments in Sydney.<\/p>\n Charles said it was not his strategy, but a cut-and-paste. He was \u201cmaking up\u201d the steps he was taking, he said.<\/p>\n Icac walked through steps taken by various rightwing operatives to put material damaging to the building commissioner into the media\u2019s hands and before Petinos, the building commissioner\u2019s boss.<\/p>\n \u201cI became aware that the video and the budget estimates transcript could be going to the media,\u201d Charles conceded.<\/p>\n But he denied he was behind the media strategy, nor was he behind the moves to get another rightwing staffer Chris Spence to convince Petinos that she should remove the building commissioner.<\/p>\n Many of the things Charles told Nassif were lies designed to placate him, he said.<\/p>\n Time and again, Dwyer returned to a text message Charles had sent to Nassif in May 2021 after a dinner meeting at the Japanese restaurant Nobu in Melbourne.<\/p>\n \u201cI told Jean that the best way to get the building commissioner off his back is to take the fight to Elliot and dismantle his infrastructure. If we can get the 189 and Garthowen payments, we can take Parra, Hills, Cumberland Councils, and the seat of Castle Hill and completely isolate him. Elliot. As a result, he\u2019ll be on his knees.\u201d<\/p>\n An inglorious history<\/p>\n Since its inception, Icac has been dealing with the heightened risk of corruption in relation to property development, beginning with its first inquiry in 1989 involving an investigation of land deals in the state\u2019s northern rivers.<\/p>\n It started as an inquiry into Tweed Heads council and secret payments to local councillor Tom Hogan<\/a> (inspiration for the plot in the film Muriel\u2019s Wedding). The investigation quickly turned to the rezoning of crown land at Fingal, where developer Ocean Blue was seeking to build a resort. No parliamentarians were charged with any offence, but National party MPs were investigated.<\/p>\n Since then, the list of property-inspired investigations has become long: Rockdale council,<\/a> Canterbury council<\/a>, Wollongong council<\/a> and multiple investigations into the Labor powerbroker Eddie Obeid, including his secret Circular Quay leases<\/a> and a coal mine<\/a>.<\/p>\n More recently there have been findings by Icac of corrupt conduct against state MPs John Sidoti<\/a>, whose family owned key sites at Five Dock, and most famously Daryl Maguire<\/a>, whose dealings with Canterbury council and Chinese developers led to an investigation that revealed his secret relationship with the then NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian<\/a>.<\/p>\n Back to the present<\/p>\n Berejiklian was replaced as premier by Dominic Perrottet in October 2021 \u2013 which brings us to Operation Rosny, the current Icac investigation.<\/p>\n Dominic Perrottet has not been named by Icac as a person of interest nor been called as a witness.<\/p>\n On its face, Icac is investigating allegations of undeclared illegal political donations which were sought and received by a group of young conservative rightwing men in the Liberal party known as the Reformers, which were alleged to have come from Catholic Schools NSW, the publican Michael O\u2019Hara and Nassif.<\/p>\n Property developers and those in the hotel industry are banned donors. There are also limits on the size of donations and they must be declared.<\/p>\n But by late Friday afternoon, it was clear that Dwyer was zeroing in on what Charles Perrottet did behind the scenes to influence the political process.<\/p>\n The question remains: did an elected official do anything to deliver on what the lobbyists and powerbrokers were seeking? Or did the officials resist overtures to engage in corrupt conduct?<\/p>\n What did Jean Nassif get for his $2m?<\/p>\n \u201cI have been promised that the building commissioner will be fucking stopped or changed or done something to him, by tomorrow,\u201d Nassif said on one phone tap that captured a call to a male person, as played to Icac.<\/p>\n In the call to a male family member, Nassif said Dominic Perrottet was his \u201cboy\u201d and bragged that he would install his preferred MP as fair trading minister to \u201cstep on fucking David Chandler and get rid of him\u201d, Icac heard.<\/p>\n He also boasted that he had stripped Elliott of the police portfolio.<\/p>\n \u201cI wouldn\u2019t be taking that [Jean] Nassif\u2019s words on phone calls as evidence of things other people have said,\u201d Charles said.<\/p>\n The branch stacking operation in the Hills was highly successful. Elliott\u2019s seat was abolished in a redistribution ahead of the 2023 state election and he was unable to secure support for a neighbouring seat.<\/p>\n The removal of Chandler, the building commissioner, was unsuccessful but led to enormous stress for him, causing him to resign \u2013 temporarily \u2013 in July 2022.<\/p>\n A less robust building commissioner might have backed off on Toplace, which was subject to multiple rectification orders. Toplace has since gone into administration, many buyers have been left with defective homes and Nassif is wanted on fraud charges.<\/p>\n Two of the three developments for which lobbying company Beckington \u2013 controlled by Ellis and Greenwood \u2013 received payments were fast-tracked, creating significant uplift in value for Nassif.<\/p>\n One possible take on the inquiry is that politicians and public officials resisted alleged improper influence. That would be a heartening conclusion.<\/p>\n But it would take a brave person to predict where an Icac inquiry might end.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Property development and corruption seem to be regular bedfellows in New South Wales. 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