Secret tape recordings and ‘sham’ payments: the Liberals’ internal ideological war laid bare

Dr Peggy Dwyer during the opening statement of the Icac Operation Rosny inquiry. Dwyer urged the public not to get despondent at the sheer scale and breadth of the alleged schemes. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP View image in fullscreen Dr Peggy Dwyer during the opening statement of the Icac Operation Rosny inquiry. Dwyer urged the public not to get despondent at the sheer scale and breadth of the alleged schemes. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP Analysis Secret tape recordings and ‘sham’ payments: the Liberals’ internal ideological war laid bare Anne Davies The NSW anti-corruption watchdog has begun a public inquiry into allegations of branch stacking, illegal donations, and interference with preselections Get our breaking news email , free app or daily news podcast If you ever thought branch stacking was a harmless game played by young, ambitious political operatives seeking to advance within the party, think again. On Monday, on the first day of the corruption watchdog’s inquiry into operation Rosny, an investigation into allegations of “possible offences under the Electoral Funding Act”, we heard boasts on secret tape recordings from a developer that he had “my hands on the state government” and he had “fucked” the career of a state politician by “taking his seat”. As for the state’s building commissioner, David Chandler, who was a thorn in the developer’s side, he was going to “fuck him sideways”. In another call, in September 2021, the developer, Jean Nassif, reflects on the “fucking bitch”, the then premier Gladys Berejiklian. “Mate, we thought we’re gonna change her,” he says to the other person on the call, Charles Perrottet. The opening address of counsel assisting the New South Wales Independent Commission of Inquiry, Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC laid out the allegations in horrifying detail. She said that Nassif, now a fugitive in Lebanon, had used his millions to engage the services of a group of Liberal operatives, known as the Reformers, as consultants. These young men, Dwyer alleges, ran a major branch stacking operation that was designed to take over the Liberal party and promote their conservative agenda, while at the same time using their influence to deliver the outcomes their benefactor sought. It was not just idle boasting by Nassif. Soon after that taped call, he got what he wanted: the Baulkham Hills MP, David Elliott, lost his preselection. Kevin Anderson, the minister responsible for the building commissioner, was replaced and Chandler, under enormous pressure, resigned. The Reformers, Icac heard, included two of the former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet’s brothers – Jean-Claude and Charles – as well as the principals of two public relations firms, Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood. Dwyer alleges Ellis and Greenwood took consultancy payments over a period of three years between 2019 and 2022, from Nassif and others. These were “sham” payments, she says, and no real work was provided for these payments. Sign up for the Breaking