Catholic Schools NSW boss says he did ‘due diligence’. His allies gave him someone else’s ABN

Catholic Schools NSW boss Dallas McInerney repeatedly insisted he did “due diligence” when negotiating a contract with a fledgling government relations firm set up by Liberal factional allies but failed to notice the consultancy provided him with somebody else’s ABN.

McInerney returned to the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Friday, where he was pressed on why he signed a lucrative contract with a Reformers-linked firm which had no experience in the education sector.

Beckington signed Catholic Schools NSW, the governing body for 600 diocesan schools across state, as its first client in 2019. McInerney told the commission he required Beckington’s services to supplement in-house government relations needs, which were managed by Catholics Schools NSW employee James Tudehope.

The company was established by Liberal operatives Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood about the time Ellis was sacked from the office of then-minister and right-wing Liberal powerbroker Damien Tudehope (James’ father) for doing factional work during business hours.

Counsel assisting Juliet Curtin showed McInerney evidence that when the schools boss asked Ellis to provide an ABN for his company, Ellis instead provided one registered to his sister, Dr Samantha Ellis.

McInerney said he believed at the time that the ABN belonged to Beckington but relied on his finance department to check it.

“Can I suggest to you that the due diligence that was conducted between April and August [when negotiating the contract] wasn’t particularly effective?” Curtin said.

“It would appear that there was a missing step there. I accept that,” McInerney said.

The commission is investigating whether Catholic Schools NSW used Beckington, and later another consultancy called JPG Advisory, to funnel money into the Reformers, a right-wing Catholic sub-faction of the Liberals.

McInerney on Thursday described the Reformers as “spectacularly unsuccessful” in their mission to push conservative values within the Liberal Party but said he was mostly supportive of their ideals.

On Friday, Curtin put to McInerney: “The situation is this, is it not Mr McInerney. You were providing money to the Reformers, which was filtered through the vehicle of Beckington?” McInerney responded: “No”.

McInerney was asked why he terminated the contract between Catholic Schools NSW and Beckington with a 2021 text to the firm’s founder Ellis saying: “With Dylan [Whitelaw] moving on, time for us to wean ourselves off Beckington”. McInerney told Ellis the contract had lasted 1.5 years.

In the messages, Ellis does not attempt to save the contract, but instead corrects that it has been two years, and thanks McInerney. “The support has been great,” Ellis said.

Whitelaw was a key member of the Reformers and was employed at Catholic Schools NSW before working for Ellis at Beckington.

The commission has previously heard claims from Whitelaw that the contract between Catholic Schools NSW and Beckington was more accurately “an arrangement” with the understanding that minimal consulting work would be done for the education body – rather, that activities would instead be undertaken to further the interests of the Reformers.

McInerney repeatedly denied this. He told the commission that he wanted to stop paying Beckington because Ellis “changed domicile”, and instead wanted to pursue a contract with Greenwood’s new firm, JPG Advisory.

McInerney also denied claims by Reformer and one-time Catholic Schools NSW staffer Robert Assaf that the schools executive had met Greenwood to discuss their ICAC evidence before the public hearings.

Assaf told the commission during a private hearing in June that Greenwood told him earlier the same month he had met with McInerney to discuss the summons they had received to appear before the ICAC.

McInerney denied meeting Greenwood.

McInerney will return to the commission on Wednesday, before former police minister David Elliott provides evidence.

The second element of this inquiry, code-named Operation Rosny, is looking at whether fugitive developer Jean Nassif was trying to buy influence in the then-Perrottet government and in the process tried to damage the political career of Elliott, who was a vocal opponent to Nassif’s developments in north-west Sydney.

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Catholic Schools NSW boss says he did ‘due diligence’. His allies gave him someone else’s ABN

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