The key member of a right-wing religious group spent 60 per cent of his day while employed at Catholic Schools NSW plotting to stack Liberal Party branches, according to damning evidence heard on Wednesday.
Robert Assaf, who spent a year training to be a priest and was a member of the NSW Reformers, which was set up to recruit Catholics to the Liberal Party, will appear on Thursday as a person of interest in the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s wide-ranging probe into illegal donations.
Assaf was employed as a communications manager at Catholic Schools NSW, the governing body for 600 diocesan schools across the state.
His former colleague at Catholic Schools NSW, Dylan Whitelaw, revealed the extent of time spent on NSW Reformers’ work when he continued his evidence before the commission on Wednesday.
Whitelaw also told the commission that NSW Liberal operatives prepared a “shit sheet” about former police minister David Elliott while a senior ministerial staffer circulated an allegedly damaging video about then-building commissioner David Chandler as part of a concerted campaign to end their careers.
The 25-year-old, who was also a member of the NSW Reformers, said the right-wing of the Liberals had a “very large distaste” for Elliott, a factional enemy who belongs to the party’s centre-right.
Whitelaw said the right’s objection to Elliott was behind its motivation in preparing a dirt sheet, which included claims of an extramarital affair involving the former Baulkham Hills MP.
However, he later conceded the dirt sheet was likely prepared to “further certain interests” of fugitive Sydney developer Jean Nassif, who is at the centre of the ICAC’s inquiry.
“At the time, it would appear to me as just standard factional warfare. On reflection, absolutely, that’s what it appears to be,” Whitelaw said.
Whitelaw, who worked in the office of then-planning minister Anthony Roberts after leaving Catholic Schools NSW, also revealed the efforts to have Chandler sacked as building commissioner.
Roberts’ former chief of staff Chris Spence wanted then-fair trading minister Eleni Petinos to raise a video in an upcoming budget estimates hearing, with the ultimate goal of damaging Chandler’s career, Whitelaw said.
The video, Whitelaw said, allegedly included the imputation Chandler was “racist” and included a reference to a list of building certifiers and developers he had given to banks.
“I believe his [Spence’s] words were something to the effect of, ‘We’ve just got to get rid of this guy’,” Whitelaw said.
Whitelaw told the commission that Spence and Petinos were “close”, but did not know why she would want to have Chandler dismissed. Whitelaw said Spence later complained that Petinos had “f---ed it up” by not raising the video in her budget estimates appearance.
Petinos, who is a frontbencher in Liberal leader Kellie Sloane’s shadow cabinet, is on maternity leave. Sloane has said she would not be commenting on Petinos’ potential involvement in the ICAC inquiry.
As part of its wide-ranging investigation, the ICAC is probing whether political donations were made by Nassif – who has fled to Lebanon – to Liberal Party operatives Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood to, among other things, damage Elliott’s political career.
It is also investigating whether Catholic Schools NSW boss Dallas McInerney approved and paid donations to the Liberal Party via the education body.
Ellis and Greenwood were partners in the now-defunct government relations firm Beckington Group, where Whitelaw also worked for a short time.
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Whitelaw was asked by counsel assisting Juliet Curtin if he was involved in preparing a document titled “David Elliott shit sheet” that was found in an email Greenwood sent to himself, which included a list of disparaging political and personal allegations about Elliott.
Whitelaw said he did not recall preparing that exact document, but was involved in preparing research about Elliott’s controversial moments, including a time he was photographed shooting a gun at a Corrective Services NSW property.
He later acknowledged that claims of Elliott’s affair were likely to be false.
The commission heard on Tuesday claims that Federal Liberal Leader Angus Taylor had pledged a $15,000 donation, and regular $3000 payments, to support the NSW Reformers. Whitelaw said he had been told about this promise by McInerney, who also chaired the right-wing faction at the time.
Taylor, who said he was not involved in the inquiry, initially told the media donations were an issue for the NSW Liberals head office, but on Wednesday he denied making a contribution to the NSW Reformers, stressing that “no payment was made”.
Whitelaw told the commission there was a contract between Catholic Schools NSW and Beckington. However, he said it was more accurately “an arrangement” with the understanding minimal consulting work would be done for the education body, and that activities would instead be undertaken to further the interests of the Reformers.
Curtin asked Whitelaw on Wednesday: “Are you able to say whether there’s a connection between the monthly amount that Angus Taylor had indicated to Mr McInerney that he’s prepared to make, and the corresponding increase, or [what] appears to be an increase, that happened at the same time in the amount that Catholic Schools NSW was paying to Beckington?”
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Whitelaw: “No, I wouldn’t be able to talk to that.”
The inquiry continues on Thursday.
Continue this investigation
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The federal opposition leader has not denied making donations to a religious faction of the NSW Liberals, which a former staffer was questioned about at ICAC.
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- Analysis
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption left an unexploded political bomb on the doorstep of the federal opposition leader. Despite his attempts to defuse it, there may still be peril lurking for Taylor.