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Revisit the biggest revelations and tense moments from NSW ICAC's Operation Rosny, as public hearings end and the anti-corruption commission adjourns to consider evidence.
Charles Perrottet, Jean Nassif and Dallas McInerney were at the centre of some of the biggest moments of the Operation Rosny inquiry. For two months, the NSW corruption watchdog has been pulling at a thread that stretches from a fugitive property developer to the inner workings of Liberal Party factional politics.
Along the way, it sifted through thousands of pages of documents and financial records, played bombshell phone taps, and heard evidence from 20 witnesses. Now, the Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry — codenamed Operation Rosny — has drawn its public hearings to a close. The allegations at its centre have not been proven, and ICAC will now consider the evidence before delivering its findings.
From the outset, disgraced property developer Jean Nassif was not expected to appear under the ICAC spotlight. Operation Rosny is investigating whether Mr Nassif — the founder of collapsed property group Toplace — paid Liberal Party operatives to achieve political outcomes that would favour his developments. During her opening address, counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC told the commission Mr Nassif, who fled to Lebanon in December 2022, had declined an invitation to assist.
So it came as a surprise when, halfway through the inquiry, Mr Nassif's name appeared on the public witness list. After taking ill before his first scheduled appearance, he eventually dialled into the inquiry from his bedroom in Beirut, and gave evidence over two afternoons. The commission had previously heard Mr Nassif paid members of a Liberal-aligned conservative Christian faction, known as the Reformers, to assist with their branch stacking and recruitment efforts.
Mr Nassif furiously denied funding the Reformers's work and repeatedly shouted that he was "not corrupt".
"If they did any corrupt work, I am not involved with it. I was not aware of it.
" Throughout the evidence, Dr Dwyer tried to calm Mr Nassif, and at one point assistant commissioner Fabian Gleeson SC intervened. "No. No. No. No. No. No. No one can make me shut up. If … you guys not going to attack the problems in this investigation, I need to pull out," Mr Nassif shouted back.
Early in the public hearings, the commission played a series of phone taps, including one in which Mr Nassif gloated to an associate about his apparent influence on then-NSW premier Dominic Perrottet. A day after Dominic Perrottet was appointed, Mr Nassif told the associate, "my boy… took the premiership". could be heard offering $100,000 to support the Liberal preselection of one of Dominic Perrottet's brothers, Jean-Claude "Can you give the 100 to your brother, to Jeremy or to Chris?
" Mr Nassif said in the call. In that same conversation, Mr Nassif spoke about his efforts to have then-NSW building commissioner David Chandler removed from his job. In another conversation with Jean-Claude Perrottet, Mr Nassif was heard disparaging former Liberal MP David Elliott.
"I f***ed him sideways … I forced the boys to get rid of his branch at Baulkham Hill, you know? " he said. The Reformers appeared most comfortable operating in the backroom of the NSW Liberal Party. This inquiry has not only shone the spotlight on the brutal world of factional politics, but also on a network of operatives and lobbyists, united by their faith and intent on pushing the Liberal Party to the right.
The commission heard about their efforts to recruit members, influence branch numbers, and build factional power. Former Liberal staffer Dylan Whitelaw described doing Reformers work while employed at Catholic Schools NSW, while Jean-Claude Perrottet told the inquiry he had performed factional duties while working for Liberal MP Damien Tudehope. Both Jean-Claude Perrottet and Charles Perrottet, who are the brothers of Dominic Perrottet, fronted the inquiry over several days.
The inquiry was also told Mr Nassif paid $2 million to Charles Perrottet, Mr Greenwood and Mr Ellis to fast-track government approvals for his building projects and target his political enemies including Mr Chandler. The money trail eventually led to a "consulting" arrangement worth $660,999 for the wife of one of the Reformers. Anita Perrottet, wife of Charles Perrottet and sister-in-law of Dominic Perrottet, received the large payments over about two-and-a-half years.
The commission heard she worked an average of about 16 hours a week for companies linked to lobbyist Mr Greenwood. Charles Perrottet and Mr Greenwood separately gave evidence that the work was largely verbal — marketing, strategic advice and conversations. There were no detailed reports, few records of meetings and little documentation of the work that had generated such a sizeable sum.
"That's an enormous amount of money to be paid for circumstances where you cannot produce a scrap of evidence in relation to work done," Dr Dwyer put to Ms Perrottet. But Ms Perrottet stood by the arrangement, telling the inquiry she was paid what she was worth, and said Mr Greenwood considered her a "huge value add".
At one point, Mr Greenwood told ICAC Ms Perrottet provided a "mum's perspective" on a campaign to promote legal vaping while limiting flavours that could appeal to children. One of the more extraordinary moments of the inquiry came when Dallas McInerney took to the witness box. When Mr McInerney was publicly named in Operation Rosny, he stood aside from his position as CEO of the influential organisation Catholic Schools NSW .
The former CSNSW boss had spent days under intense questioning about allegations involving the organisation and political donations. Dr Dwyer: "Did you talk to your solicitors in relation to performing a factory reset and what the implications of that were?
"Mr McInerney said he performed the factory reset after being alerted that his banking information had been compromised through his Apple ID and Apple Pay. But nobody had told Mr McInerney to perform the reset, nor had he consulted his lawyers or CSNSW about doing it. Counsel assisting suggested the reset was a "transparent attempt" to wipe evidence that could have been critical to the inquiry.
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