A witness who allegedly made prohibited donations to young New South Wales Liberal powerbrokers who planned to move the party to the right has told the corruption watchdog he is now “disgusted” by the scheme and “made a mistake” supporting the group.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Tuesday held its second day of Operation Rosny hearings into allegations of corruption against people associated with the NSW Liberal party.
In her opening statement on Monday, counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC said evidence would show how a group of young Liberal power brokers known as the “Reformers” allegedly solicited illegal donations to support branch stacking efforts to move the party to the conservative right.
In a separate allegation, she said that evidence would show members of the group anticipated receiving $۲m from fugitive property developer Jean Nassif in exchange for outcomes sought by him.
On Tuesday, hotelier Michael O’Hara finished giving evidence to the inquiry . O’Hara, prohibited from making political donations because of his involvement in the liquor industry, is alleged to have paid $۱۶۵,۰۰۰ to the Reformers between ۲۰۱۸ and ۲۰۲۳.
“After what I heard yesterday and what I read in the newspapers … I am absolutely astounded by where it all ended up, which I had absolutely no knowledge of. I’m disgusted,” he said.
O’Hara admitted that he had made payments to registered lobbyist Beckington, founded by Reformers member Christian Ellis, and to a company controlled by Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of former Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, to support branch-stacking efforts in Liberal branches in NSW, under the guise of financial advice or consulting services.
O’Hara was asked if he had discussed his donations to the Reformers during phone calls and text messages in September ۲۰۲۱ with now NSW shadow attorney general Damien Tudehope, his former business partner, following concerns O’Hara had about an anti-vaccination stance the group had taken.
“Well, the records show that I’ve spoken to him … I don’t recall the conversation,” he said. Asked if the contact would have included concerns about his support for the Reformers, O’Hara said: “It would appear so, yes.”
The inquiry heard O’Hara made his final payment in ۲۰۲۳ to the Reformers after coming to believe that the NSW Liberals under Dominic Perrottet had become “woke”.
“I may as well support the Greens or Teals, as Dominic was rolled on so many issues instead of prosecuting the principles I believed he stood for,” he allegedly wrote in an email to Jean-Claude Perrottet, who has previously denied any wrongdoing.
Explaining another message to Jean-Claude Perrottet, O’Hara told Icac his criticism of Perrottet was that “either he agrees with the woke crap that [former treasurer] Matt Kean was going on with, or else he was too weak to bring him into line. Either way, he was losing – he was showing he lost his spine”.
O’Hara told the inquiry that Scott “Morrison, the federal leader, had also gone woke, from Australia first, to exporting jobs overseas. He became weak, too”.
O’Hara said since hearing Dwyer’s opening statement, he now thought the Reformers’ scheme was “disgusting”. “I made a mistake in supporting them because they obviously went off the track,” he said.
Under cross-examination from his lawyer, Paul McGirr, O’Hara said it was not his understanding at the time that his payments to the Reformers were political donations.
On Tuesday, the current NSW Liberal leader, Kellie Sloane, who was not an MP at the time of the allegations Icac is investigating, told ۲GB the first day of hearings had been “intensely uncomfortable listening”.
She said she stood by comments that Tudehope was a “man of integrity”. Tudehope, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, has stood aside from his roles as leader of the Liberals in the upper house and shadow attorney general after being called as a witness during the inquiry.
Sloane called for “procedurual fairness” to be observed after another member of her front bench, shadow finance minister Eleni Petinos, was named by Dwyer in her opening statement.
On Monday, the inquiry heard a legally intercepted phone call featuring Nassif in October ۲۰۲۱, in which he allegedly claimed he had paid for the removal of the building commissioner, David Chandler, and said that “the fair trading minister is gonna to be one of my girls”.
The inquiry heard that two months after the call, then Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet appointed Petinos as state minister of fair trading in a cabinet reshuffle. In July ۲۰۲۲, Chandler handed in his resignation following an investigation into his conduct that had been requested by Petinos. He was later cleared of any wrongdoing.
Dominic Perrottet and Petinos, who is currently on maternity leave, are not accused of any wrongdoing. Nassif, who fled Australia for Lebanon in ۲۰۲۲, has previously denied any wrongdoing and has declined a request to appear before the inquiry.
