Federal opposition leader named in NSW Liberal corruption inquiry as potential donor

A federal opposition leader has surfaced in a sprawling corruption inquiry into the New South Wales Liberal Party, though he himself faces no allegations of wrongdoing. Angus Taylor was named this week as a potential donor to a conservative faction within the party now under investigation by the state's corruption watchdog. The Independent Commission Against Corruption held its second day of hearings on Tuesday into Operation Rosny, an examination of alleged illegal fundraising and branch-stacking by a group of young Liberal powerbrokers known as the Reformers.

The inquiry is centered on a scheme in which members of this faction allegedly solicited prohibited donations to bankroll efforts to shift the party rightward. One witness, hotelier Michael O'Hara, admitted under questioning that he had funneled $165,000 to the group between 2018 and 2023, despite being legally barred from making political donations because of his involvement in the liquor industry. O'Hara, who finished giving evidence on Tuesday, told the commission he is now appalled by what the money supported. "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. He acknowledged making payments disguised as consulting fees or financial advice to entities connected to the Reformers, including a registered lobbying firm and a company controlled by Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of former Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet.

O'Hara's donations were motivated by a desire to push the party away from what he saw as leftward drift. He made his final payment in 2023 after concluding that the NSW Liberals under Dominic Perrottet had become, in his view, too progressive. "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 wrote in an email to Jean-Claude Perrottet. He extended his criticism to the federal level, telling the inquiry that Scott Morrison, the federal opposition leader, had similarly "gone woke, from Australia first, to exporting jobs overseas. He became weak, too." Yet O'Hara insisted he did not understand his payments to be political donations at the time he made them.

The inquiry has also heard evidence of an alleged quid pro quo arrangement involving fugitive property developer Jean Nassif. Counsel assisting the commission, Peggy Dwyer SC, told the inquiry in her opening statement that evidence would show the Reformers anticipated receiving $2 million from Nassif in exchange for political outcomes he sought. A legally intercepted phone call from October 2021 captured Nassif claiming he had paid for the removal of the building commissioner, David Chandler, and boasting that "the fair trading minister is gonna to be one of my girls." Two months later, then-premier Dominic Perrottet appointed Eleni Petinos, a member of the Liberal front bench, as state minister of fair trading. In July 2022, Chandler resigned following an investigation into his conduct that had been requested by Petinos. He was later cleared of wrongdoing.

Damien Tudehope, now the NSW shadow attorney general, has stepped aside from his leadership roles after being called as a witness. He is not accused of wrongdoing. O'Hara was asked whether he had discussed his support for the Reformers with Tudehope, his former business partner, in September 2021 following concerns about the group's anti-vaccination stance. "The records show that I've spoken to him, but I don't recall the conversation," O'Hara said. Current NSW Liberal leader Kellie Sloane, who was not an MP during the period under investigation, called the first day of hearings "intensely uncomfortable listening" and appealed for procedural fairness as more of her front bench faces scrutiny. Nassif, who fled to Lebanon in 2022, has declined to appear before the inquiry and has previously denied any wrongdoing. Dominic Perrottet and Petinos, who is currently on maternity leave, are not accused of any wrongdoing.