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The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption has examined messages from the Reformers, a conservative faction accused of taking illegal donations to recruit Liberal party members, as public hearings concluded.
A corruption inquiry has examined messages showing how a conservative faction known as the Reformers tried to shift the NSW Liberal party to the right and became the focus of a major investigation.
Reformers Face NSW Corruption Inquiry
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating an allegation the group took illegal political donations to recruit or renew members to the party. Recovered SMS, WhatsApp and encrypted messages took centre stage during 10 weeks of public hearings that concluded on Tuesday. Robert Assaf, a co-founder, wrote in an email to a newly recruited member: Great News, God has granted us a victory and we have officially taken the Coffs Harbour branch away from the left wing.
He signed off: In Christ, Robert Assaf. Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet have denied any wrongdoing. Nathan Ellis has moved to the UK and did not give evidence. The messages chart how a group of young men, some barely out of high school, gained attention from powerful conservative politicians before becoming the focus of the corruption investigation.
They offer insight into a group that was at once a shadowy political faction hungry for influence and a boys group chat trash-talking and meeting for beers. They show how the Reformers formed, how they operated and ultimately how they ended. As Assaf told Icac, the Reformers were twentysomething-year-old guys dreaming big. Assaf and Ellis, former parliamentary staffers now 30 and 34, started the group in 2017 after meeting on the no campaign for the same-sex marriage plebiscite.
Inside the Reformers' Conservative Ambitions
They were horrified by the direction the Liberal party had taken. We are losing the Culture War and it is OUR fault, they wrote in an early draft document. The marriage plebiscite showed that conservatives are now the silent minority. Deciding the Liberal party was still their best vehicle for change, they planned to add 5,000 Christian conservatives to the 10,000 members in NSW and take control of the NSW division of the Liberal party.
Their goals included more conservative policies on marriage, gender equality, abortion and euthanasia. In 2018 the Reformers expanded to include Jean-Claude Perrottet, now 29. The younger brother of former state premier Dominic Perrottet, who is not accused of wrongdoing and has not been named in Icac's allegations, became a star recruiter of new members to branches the Reformers wanted to control. Branch stacking is not itself illegal.
When he gave evidence to Icac, Perrottet downplayed the glamour of the daily work. Going to branch meetings is like having a cup of tea with some people from the bowling club, he said. A message from Perrottet said: Need to find out if he is hawke but first meeting is about reformers suss him out then have a closer meeting you me and him hopefully.
Alleged Donations and Recruitment Links
While the Reformers presented a professional front in recruitment materials and emails to new members and potential donors, their WhatsApp group chats took a more youthful tone. Hi Michael, Assaf wrote to donor Michael O'Hara, now 83, in February 2019. It was great catching up with you and providing you an update on our activities. Thank you very much for your offer of $15k.
O'Hara, a hotelier introduced to the group by NSW upper house Liberal Damien Tudehope, does not deny payments but disputes they were political donations, which would be prohibited. Tudehope was not named as a person of interest in Icac's allegations. In a 2020 WhatsApp message from Perrottet to Assaf and Ellis, O'Hara and another alleged donor, Martin Flood, became old mate Damien's mate and Marty Money.
The youngest Reformer, Dylan Whitelaw, described Flood to the inquiry as a gentleman that had literally won the lottery and had similar conservative ideals. Whitelaw, now 25, is not named as a person of interest in Icac's allegations. Flood had not won the lottery. Guardian Australia understands he is the same Martin Flood who in 2005 became the second winner of the jackpot on the Australian version of Who Wants to Be a Millionaire.
Missing Evidence and Jean Nassif
He was not named in Icac's allegations and is not accused of wrongdoing. Flood did not respond to inquiries. One alleged donor, Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney, 53, tried to meet the Reformers at their level. When Whitelaw wrote that he and Perrottet were organising a Young Liberals pizza and beer and a bit of a call centre and phone banking event in July 2022, McInerney replied: Want me to drop by?
McInerney denied making prohibited donations through Catholic Schools NSW. He faced scrutiny over a WhatsApp message he sent to Assaf about a plan to shake down Angus for 10K. Angus Taylor, the federal Liberal leader, is not named as a person of interest in Icac's allegations and has repeatedly denied making payments to the Reformers. McInerney was sacked in August, days after telling the commission he performed a factory reset on his phone after a security alert from his bank.
He accepted the reset potentially erased critical evidence, including messages between him and the Reformers. One figure has loomed largest over Icac's inquiry: the now-fugitive property developer Jean Nassif. For the Reformers and their associates, Nassif was part of the beginning of the end. An intercepted call between Jean-Claude Perrottet and Jean Nassif took place on 1 September 2021.
In June 2022 NSW police sent intercepted communications between Nassif, Perrottet and another Perrottet brother, Charles, now 42, to the corruption watchdog. The next day the Liberal MP Ray Williams alleged that Nassif had paid significant funds to get new councillors elected to the Hills shire council to support developments by Nassif's company, Toplace. The inquiry examined the allegation that Ellis, lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood and Charles Perrottet were involved.
ICAC Investigation Reformers Faction Branch Stacking Political Donations
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