Source : the age
Charles Perrottet has wrapped his fifth day in the witness box, bringing to a close the sixth week of Operation Rosny’s public hearings.
Next week the ICAC will call back Jeremy Greenwood for two days of evidence, followed one-time Toplace employee and former Labor Strathfield councillor Sharangan Maheswaran. Former Strathfield mayor Matthew Blackmore will also give evidence.
For now, let’s take a look at what we covered today:
- Charles Perrottet denied suggestions from Peggy Dwyer, SC, that he repeatedly gave false evidence under oath and encourage his wife Anita to do the same.
- Dwyer suggested that Charles and Anita Perrottet “outsmarted” themselves by not getting their stories straight, after the couple gave conflicting evidence about payments received by Anita’s company, Macquarie Consulting. Charles Perrottet denied this, and said he may not have told his wife about the arrangement he had with Beckington, that Macquarie Consulting be paid for advice he gave.
- Phone tap recordings played to the ICAC showed Jean Nassif bragging about influence he believed he had in the state government, including that Dominic Perrottet was his “boy”, at the same time Charles Perrottet was giving him updates about the success of the right faction of the Liberal Party. Perrottet denied ever offering political outcomes in exchange for payments.
- The ICAC heard that Charles Perrottet was aware that Sharangan Maheswaran was leaking damaging stories about David Chandler to a journalist, and said, “great, we are close” when told an article was being published.
- Perrottet said he was lying when he told Nassif he was “working on it” after the developer asked for his help to get the building commissioner off his back.
Charles Perrottet is now being cross-examined by David Elliott’s barrister, Bruce Levet, about false rumours he was aware of about Elliott, including that he was having an affair.
The ICAC earlier heard evidence that Perrottet received the text of an apparent statutory declaration suggesting Elliott was meeting with a woman that was not his wife, and discussed sending it to a journalist.
“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.
“I’ve accepted where I lied and misled people. That does not make me to be a dishonest person,” Perrottet said.
Peggy Dwyer, SC, has laid out to the corruption inquiry all the times Charles Perrottet has said he lied, misled or left out information to explain certain evidence before the commission.
Perrottet told the ICAC that he would mislead developer Jean Nassif by adding “political flavour” to their discussion, to encourage him to pay money to Beckington.
He also gave evidence he may not have told his wife Anita the whole truth about the arrangement he had with Beckington. He also indicated he may have lied to Sharangan Maheswaran when he relayed a conversation he had with Nassif, detailing how they could “isolate” David Elliott and get the building commissioner off his back.
That prompted this exchange in the public hearing:
Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer, SC, has accused Charles Perrottet and his wife of working together to give false evidence to the ICAC.
Anita Perrottet previously gave evidence that payments made to her company were solely for her own work providing verbal advice, but her husband Charles has said it was actually also payment for advice he gave. The ICAC has also heard evidence of tax deductions made for Macquarie Consulting that were actually for trips Charles Perrottet took, including meetings with Jean 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.
The corruption inquiry has heard evidence that Charles Perrottet was annoyed that his brother Jean-Claude planned to return to Australia the day after a parliamentary inquiry ended.
Jean-Claude Perrottet flew to Fiji to avoid being summonsed to appear before the inquiry into illegal donations in the Hills Shire, the ICAC has previously heard.
Text messages between the two brothers were read before the commission.
“There’s a guy outside my house,” Jean-Claude texted.
The ICAC has been shown evidence of spreadsheets made by Christian Ellis that detailed sums of money coming in from Toplace totalling $2 million, and how it would be split between himself, Charles Perrottet and Jeremy Greenwood.
The amounts to be paid to Perrottet set out in the spreadsheets correspond to payment made to his wife’s company, Macquarie Consulting.
“It’s blatantly obvious, isn’t it, that the money coming into Macquarie Consulting was actually for work you were doing with Beckington for Toplace,” Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked.
Perrottet denied this.
“I suggest to you, Mr Perrottet, that that answer is ludicrous,” Dwyer said.
“It’s true,” Perrottet said, insisting he had no knowledge of Ellis’ spreadsheets.
Charles Perrottet has been asked if his wife Anita lied to the corruption inquiry when she said money coming into her company bank account was solely for her consulting work for Beckington.
Charles Perrottet has described the payments to Macquarie Consulting as “holistic” for Anita’s work as well as advice he gave to help Toplace. Peggy Dwyer, SC, has asked Perrottet if his wife was lying when she provided that evidence.
Perrottet said she didn’t lie, but rather he might not have told his wife about the true arrangement.
“So you say you could have been lying to Anita in relation to the fact, or hiding from her, that the payments coming into Macquarie Consulting were in fact holistic payments that were supposed to represent a thank you for the advice you’d given?” Dwyer asked.
“Yeah, I don’t remember the extent that I actually shared that with Anita,” Perrottet said.
Charles Perrottet responded “great, we are close” when Sharangan Maheswaran told him he had leaked a negative story about the building commissioner to a journalist, the ICAC has heard.
Peggy Dwyer, SC, read texts between Perrottet and Maheswaran to the corruption inquiry. Maheswaran, a lawyer and Toplace employee, told Perrottet that he had sent a negative video of David Chandler to a journalist and that the reporter would seek a comment from fair trading minister Eleni Petinos.
Perrottet responds to the news that a media article was imminent with “okay great, we are close”.
Dwyer: “What did you mean by ‘we are close’?”
Perrottet: “I’m not sure.”
Dwyer: “Well, it suggests, doesn’t it, that this was very much your strategy that you were involved in, in relation to discrediting or getting rid of Mr Chandler?”
Perrottet: “I was probably commenting on the activity that Sharangan was undertaking.”
In explanation of some text messages shown to the inquiry, Peggy Dwyer, SC, told the commission that Sharangan Maheswaran would often come up with silly nicknames for people, and would sometimes refer to Charles Perrottet as either “the baguette” or the “papal baguette”.
Texts showed Jeremy Greenwood and Maheswaran discussing a letter titled “Minister Petinos”, referring to fair trading minister Eleni Petinos, containing complaints against David Chandler.
“Can you please sanity check and tell me whether you think it will be effective?” Maheswaran asked Greenwood about the letter.
“Can you also send to the baguette and get his assessment if it’ll do the trick?”
Greenwood tells Maheswaran that Perrottet wanted to wait a few days before using the letter. Perrottet told the ICAC he didn’t remember the document.
Before the lunch break Charles Perrottet was asked if he tried to influence then-fair trading minister Eleni Petinos to dump David Chandler as building commissioner.
Petinos is not a person of interest to the inquiry. She gave evidence last month that Perrottet called her in January 2022 and mentioned that Chandler was “on the take” and a bully.
Perrottet said he did not recall that conversation.
“That was your subtle attempt, wasn’t it, to prompt her to take action to get rid of David Chandler?” Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked.
