The younger brother of Dominic Perrottet has denied asking his brother to appoint a cabinet minister to achieve outcomes for a property developer, a corruption inquiry has heard.
Charles Perrottet told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Friday that claims made in an intercepted phone call featuring developer Jean Nassif days before his brother became the NSW premier – in which Nassif described Dominic Perrottet as “my boy” – did not reflect promises allegedly made to Nassif.
Dominic Perrottet is not a person of interest in Icac’s inquiry and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
As part of its inquiry into alleged corruption in the NSW Liberals, Icac is investigating the allegation that conservative factional figures Charles Perrottet, Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis received prohibited donations totalling $۲m from Nassif or his company Toplace between ۲۰۲۰ and ۲۰۲۳ in exchange for political outcomes.
Those outcomes allegedly included damage to the career of David Elliott, a former NSW Liberal minister, who had opposed Nassif’s developments and the removal of the former building commissioner David Chandler, who was scrutinising defects in Toplace apartments.
On Friday, the commission heard a phone call featuring Nassif, lawfully intercepted by police, made on ۲ October ۲۰۲۱. Three days later, Dominic Perrottet was chosen as premier by Liberal MPs, defeating Rob Stokes, under a deal Charles Perrottet helped broker between conservative and moderate factions.
In the call, Nassif allegedly told a relative: “This week is going to be the worst week of my life … because we’re reshuffling the government.”
“We thought we [had] done it, then this wanker the police minister he did it, and he had a caucus, and he convinced Rob Stokes to challenge my boy,” Nassif continued, saying he supported Perrottet’s campaign. “They’re my people, they’re the right wing”.
Nassif told the relative he had been promised that then police minister Elliott and the then fair trading minister Kevin Anderson would be removed.
“I put my lady in in his position [sic], the consumer affairs minister … then I’m gonna … have to step on fucking David Chandler and get rid of him.”
The former NSW fair trading minister Eleni Petinos has previously told the inquiry she may have been used by fellow Liberals, including Chris Spence and Charles Perrotet, to get rid of Chandler, including attempts to persuade her Chandler was “dodgy”. She is not named in Icac’s allegations and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
On Friday, Charles Perrottet told counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, that following his brother’s accession as premier, he did not discuss the makeup of his cabinet with him. He later said he did recall “a conversation about the balance of women in the cabinet”, which he said he did not include names.
He said he did not discuss Petinos, or put her forward for the fair trading portfolio. “Dom would have made his own decisions,” he said. He said he did not recall having a conversation with Nassif about Petinos.
In another intercepted phone call to an unnamed person in January ۲۰۲۲, after Elliott had been moved to transport in a reshuffle the previous month, Nassif claimed he had “stripped him from his police ministry”.
“I’m gonna fuck everyone. The commissioner, [in] a couple of weeks he’ll be gone.”
Charles Perrottet, acknowledging that “commissioner” probably referred to Chandler, said: “You can’t take this seriously.”
Chandler resigned in July ۲۰۲۲ citing concerns with Petinos, who was sacked in that month amid bullying allegations which she denied at the time. Chandler, who was later persuaded to reverse his resignation, is not a person of interest in Icac’s allegations and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
The inquiry has previously heard that following a meeting between him and Nassif at the fine-dining Nobu restaurant in Melbourne in May ۲۰۲۱, Charles Perrottet wrote he had told Nassif “the best way to get the building commissioner off his back is to take the fight to Elliott and dismantle his infrastructure”. In another message he asked for payments in relation to Toplace developments.
Charles Perrottet, asked if Nassif’s claims were consistent with promises made at the dinner, said on Friday: “I wouldn’t put it that way”.
He has repeatedly denied taking payments from Nassif for political outcomes, saying he would regularly lie to the developer, adding a “political flavour” to advice in order to chase payments for genuine lobbying work by Beckington, a firm controlled by Greenwood and Ellis.
Nassif, who fled Australia for rural Lebanon in ۲۰۲۲, withdrew from an expected appearance by video link on Friday after providing a medical certificate. He has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Greenwood will appear before the commission again next week.
Icac’s inquiry continues.
