The Liberal Party powerbroker who dragged Catholic schools into corruption inquiry

The head of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, has resigned from the state’s powerful curriculum and assessment board after the anti-corruption watchdog sensationally revealed it was investigating whether he signed off on illegal political donations to recruit Liberal Party members.

McInerney, who has previously served on the Liberal Party’s state executive and is one of federal leader Angus Taylor’s closest allies, is the most senior Liberal who will feature in the inquiry that centres on fugitive Sydney developer Jean Nassif and his links to the party and councils.

McInerney quit the board of the NSW Education Standards Authority on Wednesday after the Independent Commission Against Corruption outlined damning allegations against him, including that he “arranged and approved” political donations from Catholic Schools NSW to recruit members to the party.

The ICAC said the amounts “were not declared and exceeded applicable donation caps”.

Catholic Schools NSW did not respond to questions about whether McInerney would stay in his role.

For years, McInerney has controlled the right-wing faction of the NSW Liberals, and was touted as a Liberal candidate for the Senate to replace Jim Molan. In response to questions to Taylor’s office, a spokesman for the federal opposition leader said, “these are matters for the commission”.

McInerney has had a long history with the Liberals, which included him being convicted for harassing a political rival in the lead-up to the March 1995 state election.

McInerney was working as a staffer for Liberal MP Chris Downy, who held the former state seat of Sutherland, when the then-22-year-old used the campaign office phone to harass and abuse a pizza shop owner who had Labor Party posters in his shop window.

He was convicted of using a telephone service to harass the owner, whom he called up to 20 times a day for four weeks to abuse him over his support for the Labor Party. McInerney was fined and placed on a two-year good behaviour bond.

The long-awaited corruption inquiry has unexpectedly thrust Catholic Schools NSW, the governing body for NSW diocesan Catholic schools, into the spotlight. The organisation was established in 2016 in response to the “bishops’ express desire for a more appropriate, efficient, and transparent administration of Catholic schools in NSW”.

The media manager at Catholic Schools NSW is Jean-Claude Perrottet, who is also facing allegations he “solicited or accepted political donations, including from prohibited donors”. Jean-Claude’s older brother Charles is also under investigation by the anti-corruption watchdog.

John Perrottet – the father of Jean-Claude, Charles and former premier Dominic Perrottet – is on the board of Catholic Schools NSW.

Neither John nor Dominic Perrottet is accused of any wrongdoing.

Facing the same allegations as McInerney is Jeremy Greenwood, a lobbyist for Catholic Schools NSW. Greenwood, who has formerly worked for National Party Leader Matt Canavan, is also a lobbyist for the Catholic Archdiocese of Sydney.

Greenwood and his former business partner, Christian Ellis, who is also facing branch-stacking allegations to be heard by the ICAC, were both former lobbyists for disgraced property developer Jean Nassif, who is at the centre of the probe.

Robert Assaf, the former communications manager for Catholic Schools NSW, is also facing allegations he solicited political donations, including from prohibited donors. He later became the head of corporate affairs at Greyhound Racing NSW, which employs Greenwood’s firm as its lobbyist.

In 2019, McInerney and Charles Perrottet were among those elected to the NSW Liberal Party’s Local Government Oversight Committee. This effectively gave them control over which candidates would run for local government.

According to an extensive anonymous dossier tabled in NSW parliament, at the 2021 local government elections, Hills Shire councillors were replaced with new councillors “through manipulation and abuse of the selection process using … the State Executive and the Local Government Oversight Committee.”

At the centre of the allegations into changes at the Hills Shire council was Nassif, the fugitive developer who fled to Lebanon in December 2022.

The ICAC’s inquiry will investigate whether, in 2020 and 2023, political donations were made by or on behalf of Nassif and Toplace Pty Ltd, from prohibited donors under the Electoral Funding Act 2018 (NSW), and were solicited or accepted by Christian Ellis, Jeremy Greenwood and Charles Perrottet.

Premier Chris Minns has demanded the membership of two Labor councillors also involved in the inquiry be suspended.

Strathfield Labor councillors Sharangan Maheswaran and Karen Pensabene were also alleged to have engaged in conduct towards Strathfield councillor Matthew Blackmore that “involves the dishonest or partial exercise of their official functions and/or a breach of public trust, including conduct which could involve blackmail and/or possible breaches of the Surveillance Devices Act 2007.”

In early 2023, the pair told then-mayor Blackmore they had hired a private investigator who had followed him for five months and had been secretly recording his conversations.

Blackmore unexpectedly resigned as Strathfield mayor in March 2023 blaming “overtures” made to him by unnamed people. He said at the time that he had “stood firm” against their demands and had reported the matter to the appropriate authorities.

However, the Liberal Party is not taking the same action, with a spokesman instead saying: “It would not be appropriate to comment on a current active ICAC inquiry.”

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