A factional ally of the federal opposition leader, Angus Taylor, has told a corruption inquiry that a group of Christian Liberal power brokers who allegedly solicited illegal political donations were “spectacularly unsuccessful in their ambitions”.
The Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney, told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Thursday that the Reformers’ model was never correct.
Icac is investigating whether McInerney arranged and approved donations from the governing body for ۶۰۰ Catholic schools to support alleged branch stacking efforts of the conservative Christian group.
The Reformers wanted more conservative policies on issues such as same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. A document drafted around the group’s inception proposed to recruit ۵,۰۰۰ Christian conservatives to join New South Wales Liberal party branches “and thereby take control of the NSW division of the Liberal party”.
McInerney on Thursday admitted he first became aware of Reformers’ recruitment events in late ۲۰۱۸ and ۲۰۱۹. He said he was “mostly” supportive of their goals.
The counsel assisting Juliet Curtin asked: “What’s the qualification here, Mr McInerney?”
“They were spectacularly unsuccessful in their ambitions,” he replied. “I never thought the model was right.”
McInerney stood aside from his role as CEO before the Icac hearings began “to allow the work of Catholic Schools NSW to continue its important mission”, he previously said in a statement.
McInerney on Thursday accepted he had begun to speak frequently to Reformers Christian Ellis, Robert Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet by ۲۰۲۰. Asked if he knew that the men were “fervent” in the pursuit of the Reformers’ goals, McInerney said the word was “very subjective”.
Asked if “passionate” was a better word, he said: “I actually don’t think there was a passion there. I think it was a calling for them, a duty.”
Nearly ۸۰% of funding managed by Catholic Schools NSW comes from federal and state funding, or about $۳.۸bn in ۲۰۲۴.
Icac has previously heard that Catholic Schools NSW paid monthly retainers to two lobbying firms controlled by members of the Reformers for consulting services.
It paid Beckington, run by Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood, $۱۳۰,۹۰۰ between August ۲۰۱۹ and August ۲۰۲۱, and JPG Advisory, run by Greenwood, $۱۳۵,۰۰۰ between December ۲۰۲۱ and December ۲۰۲۳.
During evidence on Wednesday, Greenwood, who has disputed whether he was a member of the Reformers, was read messages between himself and McInerney in October ۲۰۲۲ in which the latter asked about missing invoices. Greenwood responded: “I stopped sending them in the end haha.”
The counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked why he had signed off the message in that way: “Is the joke on parents paying funds to Catholic Schools NSW, or the government assisting with that funding, that this money is not for any genuine consultancy, but was in fact intended in part to fund Jean-Claude Perrottet?”
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“Absolutely not,” Greenwood replied.
On Thursday, the inquiry heard that McInerney, the only CEO of Catholic Schools NSW since its founding in ۲۰۱۷, joined the Liberal party while at school in the late ۱۹۸۰s or early ۱۹۹۰s. He remained a member until June this year, when he also ceased being the president of the Mittagong branch.
McInerney, a member of the Liberals right faction, came to know senior conservative state and federal parliamentarians including Tony Abbott, Angus Taylor, Matt Canavan, Dominic Perrottet and Damien Tudehope. McInerney and right faction members later spoke at Reformers events.
He said the right faction members had “uniform awareness and knowledge” about the Reformers’ work, but were “not uniformly supportive in acceptance”.
In its first week, the inquiry heard a message sent by McInerney, who is a factional ally of Taylor, to Assaf in March ۲۰۲۱, advising of a plan to “shake down Angus for ۱۰K”.
Taylor has not been named in Icac’s allegations and has repeatedly denied he ever made payments to the Reformers.
McInerney admitted to having his own political ambitions “off and on for several” years, but said he was “at peace” with not taking over the late federal Liberal senator Jim Molan’s seat. Molan died in January ۲۰۲۳ but McInerney missed out on the Senate spot.
He was read messages exchanged between him and Greenwood in which he wrote: “I know I’ve been fucked.”
“Yeah it’s fucked, it’s fucked, it’s fucked,” McInerney wrote in March ۲۰۲۳.
Icac’s inquiry continues.
