Former Liberal minister says Angus Taylor should quit over ally’s links to corruption probe

Former NSW police minister David Elliott says federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor should resign, saying his close links to besieged Catholic Schools NSW boss Dallas McInerney has left the Liberal Party exposed as it faces a damaging corruption inquiry.

The anti-corruption watchdog on Wednesday announced a long-awaited public inquiry following its lengthy investigation into fugitive Sydney property developer Jean Nassif’s links to Liberal powerbrokers, councils and Catholic schools.

McInerney on Thursday stood aside as the boss of Catholic Schools NSW after the commission revealed it was investigating whether he signed off on illegal political donations from that organisation to recruit Liberal Party members.

The shock accusations prompted Elliott to warn that Taylor’s leadership was terminal because of his ties to McInerney, who is one of the Liberal leader’s closest political allies.

“Angus is hiding beyond the inquiry, but you don’t get that luxury in leadership and the fact that Dallas McInerney was his campaign treasurer leaves him and the Liberal Party exposed,” Elliott told this masthead on Thursday. Elliott said Taylor should resign.

Taylor’s office was contacted for comment.

Elliott also warned that NSW frontbenchers could lose their jobs once the details of the commission are aired during the eight-week hearing, which kicks off on July 27.

For years, McInerney controlled the right-wing faction of the NSW Liberals, and he was touted as a Liberal candidate for the Senate to replace Jim Molan. He is also very close to Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher.

Fisher did not respond to repeated requests for comment about whether he still backed McInerney.

In a statement, the ICAC said it would probe whether Liberal operatives, including Christian Ellis, Jeremy Greenwood, Robert Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet “solicited or accepted political donations, including from prohibited donors, in amounts that were not declared and exceeded applicable donation caps”.

As part of its investigation, the ICAC will also examine whether political donations were made by or on behalf of Jean Nassif and his company Toplace, which are prohibited donors, and were “solicited or accepted” by Ellis, Greenwood and Charles Perrottet.

Charles and Jean-Claude are brothers of former premier Dominic Perrottet, who is not accused of any wrongdoing.

It has been alleged that at the behest of Nassif, illegal donations were used to recruit party members and to do “damage to the political career” of Elliott and the removal of then-building commissioner David Chandler from public office.

Despite standing down from the board of the NSW Education Standards Authority on Wednesday, McInerney did not step aside from his Catholic Schools NSW post until Thursday.

“I offered to my board to stand aside for the duration of the ICAC matter and strongly recommended they accept that offer to allow the work of Catholic Schools NSW to continue its important mission,” McInerney said on Thursday afternoon.

“I was keen to privilege the work of Catholic Schools NSW before my own standing. This means I can also have the time to fully cooperate and assist ICAC with its important investigation.”

In a statement, Catholic Schools NSW said it was aware of the ICAC announcement and would deal with the matters raised in an “appropriate and thorough” manner. It has not responded to questions about whether Jean-Claude Perrottet, media manager at the organisation, would be stood aside pending the ICAC inquiry.

Meanwhile, a former Labor councillor who is also the subject of the looming inquiry has rejected the allegations against him.

“Those crowing today might be licking their wounds tomorrow,” said former Strathfield Labor councillor Sharangan Maheswaran on a residents’ association Facebook page on Thursday.

“Everything I did was lawful and in the public interest.”

Maheswaran and his Labor colleague Karen Pensabene are alleged to have engaged in conduct towards Strathfield councillor Matthew Blackmore that “involves the dishonest or partial exercise of their official functions and/or a breach of public trust, including conduct which could involve blackmail and/or possible breaches of the Surveillance Devices Act 2007”.

In early 2023, Maheswaran and Pensabene allegedly told Blackmore that a private investigator had been following him for five months and had been secretly recording his conversations.

Blackmore unexpectedly resigned as Strathfield mayor in March 2023 blaming “overtures” made to him by unnamed people. He said at the time that he had “stood firm” against their demands and had reported the matter to the appropriate authorities.

Maheswaran has claimed his role in ousting Blackmore as mayor was an “invention”.

NSW Opposition Leader Kellie Sloane held a media conference on Thursday to insist anyone found to be corrupt would have no place in her team.

“This is a massive distraction, an incredible disappointment, and the timing’s not ideal as we lead up to an election,” she said.

Asked if she was confident members of the opposition wouldn’t be implicated, Sloane said: “I just honestly don’t know”.

She said she had not asked the Liberal Party if it had independently tried to verify any claims made by MP Ray Williams in his 2022 speech to parliament when he claimed his own colleagues were involved in systemic corruption.

Minns on Thursday morning said it was appropriate that the two Labor Strathfield councillors named in the inquiry be suspended from the party pending the investigation.

“Labor has figured prominently in previous ICAC investigations and inquiries, and we’ve had to learn the lessons from that, and they’ve been very difficult, but hugely important public inquiries … it’s a reckoning for us too in the past, and we have to heed the lessons from it,” he said.

When asked if political donation laws needed to be overhauled even further, Minns said “potentially” but said he would wait to see the full scope of evidence before looking at changes.

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