Source : Perth Now news
A Liberal leader has sought to distance herself from a political donations scandal ensnaring a former premier’s brothers, senior party powerbrokers and a fugitive developer.
NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane said she supports an Independent Commission Against Corruption probe into long-standing allegations of misconduct involving members of the state Liberal branch.
She described the timing of the inquiry due to start in July, less than a year out from state elections, as a “massive distraction” that was damaging to her party in pleading its case to govern.
“To be absolutely clear that I don’t stand for the kind of behaviour that is being alleged,” she told reporters in parliament on Thursday.
“This behaviour, if it’s proven, is absolutely reprehensible, has no place in the party that I lead.”
But Ms Sloane also made clear she was a relatively new politician who had been in the job as opposition leader for less than a year, and was not privy to any details of the accusations levelled.
“I’m fairly new to this game. I’m not a career politician. This is not the world I’ve lived in,” she said.
The inquiry was sparked when state Liberal MP Ray Williams in 2022 used parliamentary privilege to claim powerbrokers within his own party were engaged in branch-stacking and improper local council dealings.
Controversial property developer Jean Nassif was alleged to have drawn on his political connections through donations to facilitate favourable planning decisions.
The claims led to a parliamentary inquiry in 2023 that engaged professional process servers to search for then-Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet’s brothers, Jean-Claude and Charles, without success.
The commission’s probe will scrutinise political donations by other figures, including Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney and hotelier Michael O’Hara, between 2019 and 2023.
Mr McInerney reportedly stepped down from the NSW Education Standards Authority on Wednesday.
The anti-corruption body will also assess whether political donations from Mr Nassif and his development company Toplace were accepted by Liberal Party members between 2020 and 2023 in return for outcomes he was seeking at the Hills Shire Council.
The developer allegedly sought to damage the reputation of former transport minister David Elliott and to remove then-building commissioner David Chandler.
Developers are banned from making political donations
Operation Rosny is also examining a third allegation involving another Sydney council – in this instance, the conduct of a current Labor councillor and a former Labor councillor accused of blackmail.
One of the councillors, Sharangan Maheswaran, was a former lawyer at Mr Nassif’s collapsed company.
Mr Nassif left Australia for Lebanon in 2022 but is being pursued by NSW Police after a two-year fraud investigation.
A warrant has been issued for his arrest, while 57 companies linked with Toplace are in administration.
The inquiry is due to run for eight weeks starting on July 27.
