Source : the age
Ten minutes before Monday morning’s hearing was due to commence, a party of five – a key witness and his four lawyers – strode down Elizabeth Street towards the headquarters of the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
Flanking Jeremy Greenwood, who was casually dressed in a blue open-necked shirt and jacket, was the familiar face of solicitor Bryan Wrench.
Wrench has been featuring prominently in daily media reports holding the elbow of his more famous client, former broadcaster Alan Jones.
Due to a day of legal arguments at Jones’ criminal trial, Wrench was available to appear for Greenwood at the explosive corruption inquiry, which is examining a variety of matters, including branch-stacking activities by the right of the Liberal Party funded, in part, by illegal donations.
From the outset, Wrench’s client appeared to be either distancing himself from events or he was suffering from profound memory loss.
The way the former political staffer turned lobbyist painted it, he was not a Reformer (a group of conservative young Christian Liberals), he knew little about the initial clients of his own lobbying firm, and no, he wasn’t even a member of the Liberal Party.
Greenwood offered cheerily that the Liberal Party “emailed me the other day suspending me, and I wrote back saying I didn’t know I was a member. Please accept my resignation.”
Even when asked his age, Greenwood appeared to struggle with the details. He replied 30 … then, after a long pause, he added a seven. He did remember that his close friend Christian Ellis was his groomsman at his wedding – but he struggled to recall which year that was.
Unfortunately, Greenwood couldn’t recall anything about the first client of his and Ellis’ lobbying outfit, Beckington, which the pair registered in July 2019.
He also couldn’t recall what work Beckington was doing to be paid $6600 a month by that first client, Dallas McInerney, the chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW.
The inquiry has previously heard that Greenwood’s lobbying firm issued “sham” invoices to disguise prohibited political donations, which were used to stack branches.
“I cannot recall the work that was performed,” Greenwood told the inquiry. “Most of my work is verbal, I don’t do much typing,” he added.
Following repeated responses that he did not recall what work his lobbying firm was doing for Catholic Schools NSW, counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, asked the witness who could provide these answers, “given your absence of memory”.
Greenwood helpfully suggested the commission ask his former business partner Ellis, or “you could ask James Tudehope if you want”. This was a reference to fellow Redfield College old boy James Tudehope, son of Liberal MP Damien Tudehope and a former staffer at Catholic Schools.
“Well, conveniently, Mr Tudehope is in New Zealand and Mr Ellis is in the United Kingdom,” Dwyer shot back.
“Inconvenient for me,” Greenwood retorted before complaining about the four years that had passed since the referral was first made to the ICAC.
Damien Tudehope, who recently stood down from the state opposition’s frontbench, admitted in his evidence last week that he had leaked a confidential draft of the NSW parliament’s 2023 report into similar allegations now being examined by the ICAC.
The person he leaked it to was none other than Greenwood, who had gone to considerable lengths to avoid giving evidence to parliament at the time.
Both James Tudehope and Ellis have indicated that they are unavailable to give evidence to the ICAC.
Greenwood’s evidence is expected to continue on Tuesday. Although, after the lunch break, which Greenwood spent sitting alone on a purple couch outside the hearing room, he told the inquiry that his pregnant wife was having contractions.
