Source : the age
Anita Perrottet smiled beatifically as she looked to the ceiling, stroked her chin, scratched her hair or stared quizzically at an invisible spot on the floor.
“No, I just don’t recall,” she said, beaming at Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, the counsel assisting a corruption inquiry which has embroiled her family.
One of the lawyers in the Elizabeth Street hearing room noted he’d given up counting Perrottet’s “I don’t recalls” when he got to 140 – and that was only up to the morning tea break on Wednesday.
David Chandler is no stranger to the pages of this newspaper – as the inaugural building commissioner, Chandler was appointed by then premier Gladys Berejiklian to clean up the building industry after a series of high profile building defects.
Chandler would often feature in reporting about the sorry state of apartment construction in Sydney, and has never been afraid to share his opinions about dodgy developers.
The ICAC is now investigating if Jean Nassif paid money to Liberal Party figures including Charles Perrottet, Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood to help fund their factional work, but also to pursue Nassif’s interests. That included removing Chandler from office, and damaging the political career of David Elliott.
At a budget estimates hearing in 2022, Chandler accused Nassif’s company Toplace of spreading a false rumour accusing the then building commissioner of asking for bribes. Chandler had slapped Toplace with a prohibition order restricting them from building any more projects until they fixed serious defects, drawing the fury of Nassif.
The ICAC has previously heard evidence about efforts to discredit Chandler, including a damaging video being shared among government staffers and leaked to journalists.
Good morning and welcome to another day in Operation Rosny’s public hearings.
I’m state political reporter Jessica McSweeney, and along with the Herald’s senior writers, we’ll be bringing you all the news as it happens from the ICAC.
Today David Chandler will give evidence about an alleged plot to remove him as building commissioner, allegedly at the hands of Liberal Party figures funded by fugitive property developer Jean Nassif.
First, lets take a look at what we covered yesterday:
- Anita Perrottet has denied lying under oath to cover for her husband Charles, who is a person of interest to the inquiry. The ICAC is investigating if invoices paid to her company were not for genuine work, but as a way to hide payment made by Jean Nassif to her husband. She denies this.
- Charles Perrottet attended a lunch with Jean Nassif’s home which he brought his kids to, but Anita Perrottet said she wasn’t aware of this. She said she had never met Nassif when shown friendly texts between the fugitive property developer and her husband.
- Perrottet said she was contracted by Jeremy Greenwood’s consulting businesses to give strategic and marketing advice, but all her work was done on the phone or verbally in person. She said she did not have written evidence of her work because it involved giving advice to Greenwood.
- The ICAC has heard evidence Perrottet received significant lump sum payments, which included receiving more than $250,000 in a three-month period for her advice. Perrottet insisted this was for genuine work.
- Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer, SC, suggested to Perrottet that she was put in an “impossible position” to cover for her husband, which she denied.
- Anita Perrottet could not remember if she was ever a member of the Liberal Party and remembered little about her husband Charles’s factional work.
