‘Does not make me dishonest’: Charles Perrottet defends his lies to corruption probe

Former Liberal Party powerbroker Charles Perrottet has said lying and misleading people “does not make me a dishonest person” as a blockbuster corruption inquiry heard the BP executive repeatedly gave false evidence under oath and convinced his wife to do the same.

Perrottet finished giving more than four days of evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Friday, with counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, putting to Perrottet that he was rarely truthful in the witness box.

“I’m suggesting that you have repeatedly given false evidence under oath and you have encouraged your wife Anita to give false evidence under oath,” Dwyer said. Perrottet denied this.

Dwyer outlined examples, including Perrottet telling the inquiry he would mislead disgraced developer Jean Nassif by adding “political flavour” to their discussion to encourage him to pay money to the lobby firm Beckington, owned by his mates Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood.

Perrottet also gave evidence that he may not have told his wife the whole truth about the financial arrangement he had with Beckington.

The party apparatchik also indicated he may have lied to Nassif’s lawyer, Sharangan Maheswaran, when he relayed a conversation he had with the developer, suggesting they could “isolate” former police minister David Elliott to get the building commissioner David Chandler “off his back”.

Perrottet was cross-examined by Elliott’s barrister, Bruce Levet, about false rumours Perrottet was aware of relating to Elliott, including that he was having an affair.

“In relation to the imputations that you make about Mr Elliott’s reputation, why should anybody, let alone this commission, believe a self-confessed and habitual liar such as yourself?” Levet asked.

Perrottet responded: “I’ve accepted where I lied and misled people. That does not make me to be a dishonest person.”

Dwyer also accused Perrottet and Anita of working together to give false evidence.

Anita previously told the commission payments made to her company, Macquarie Consulting, were solely for her work providing verbal strategy advice to Beckington, but Charles has said it was also payment for advice he gave.

The commission has also heard evidence of tax deductions made for Macquarie Consulting that were for trips Charles Perrottet took, including meetings with Nassif.

“You outsmarted yourself, I’m suggesting to you, by not getting your stories entirely straight because you fabricated evidence with Anita that you’ve given to this inquiry. Is that the situation?” Dwyer asked.

“Not at all,” Perrottet said.

Earlier on Friday, Perrottet said he did not refer an apparent extortion attempt to extract $5 million from Nassif to police or the corruption watchdog despite having concerns about the seriousness of the shakedown.

The commission has heard a supposed extortion attempt was sent to Nassif’s construction company, Toplace, suggesting the building commissioner would deliver favourable outcomes if a large sum of money were paid.

Perrottet told the commission he viewed the extortion attempt as serious but did not report it to police or the ICAC because he assumed others would.

Assistant commissioner Fabian Gleeson, SC, asked Perrottet to explain why he would not take any action over what Perrottet believed was a serious extortion attempt.

“You’re unable to assist us as to actually what then happened thereafter with something you say was a genuine extortion attempt?” Gleeson asked. “Yes,” Perrottet said.

“So, what? It’s just a wet fish, is it? It just goes nowhere?” Gleeson asked.

“Well, it’s a matter for Sharangan [Maheswaran]. I don’t know what he did with it,” Perrottet said. Maheswaran was a Toplace executive at the time and is also a person of interest in this inquiry.

Perrottet told the commission it never occurred to him the extortion texts could have been fake. Chandler is not accused of wrongdoing and there is no suggestion he was involved in the alleged extortion attempt.

Dwyer asked Perrottet: “Did it occur to you that Mr Nassif might be writing the message himself or getting one of his friends to write a message that made it look like an extortion attempt?”

Perrottet said he did not think it was “bogus”.

He also told the commission his promise to make calls on Nassif’s behalf to get the building commissioner “off his back” was probably a lie, although he was shown evidence he actually spoke to then-government staffer Chris Spence.

“Made that call this morning,” Perrottet texted Nassif after the call to Spence, who was then-Liberal minister Anthony Roberts’ chief of staff.

“Can you get Sharangan to get me the extortion messages? They are of interest to get this stopped. Thanks,” the text said.

Dwyer asked Perrottet if he was trying to damage the career of Chandler, whose role was created to ensure oversight of dodgy practices in the building industry.

Perrottet said he was not sure about his level of knowledge about the role of the building commissioner, prompting Dwyer to suggest he was not being truthful in his answer.

“Mr Perrottet, you’re a clever man who’d been in the corridors of power for over a decade, correct?” Dwyer asked.

“I was involved in the Liberal Party,” Perrottet said. He said he did not do anything to damage Chandler’s reputation.

Dwyer asked if Perrottet thought a possible explanation for Nassif’s complaints about Chandler targeting him was actually because his Toplace developments contained defects.

Perrottet said Nassif’s complaints to him were not about specific defects.

The inquiry continues.

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