A sickening feeling of deja vu from the ghosts of ICAC past is likely to be haunting some Liberal Party figures tuning in to the daily drama of the Operation Rosny corruption inquiry.

For the second day in a row, Dylan Whitelaw, 25, a former member of an ultra-conservative right-wing faction of the party called the Reformers, had difficulty recalling crucial events.

When shown a “shit sheet” on then-Liberal police minister David Elliott, which Whitelaw was allegedly involved in compiling, he replied, “It doesn’t refresh my memory. There’s components in there that I have zero recollection of.”

However, his recollection came sharply back into focus when he was asked about his dealings with Chris Spence, the former chief of staff to then-planning minister Anthony Roberts.

The mention of his name would no doubt have sparked repeat trauma for Spence – and others in the Liberal Party.

“I was completely shocked when I saw Spence employed in a minister’s office,” one current Liberal MP told the Herald of Spence joining Roberts’ office in 2019. “It reminded me of that horrible time in our party.”

He was referring to the ICAC’s Operation Spicer, which was tabled in parliament a decade ago. One of the MPs forced to resign was Spence, the member for The Entrance, who was found to have disguised political donations from banned donors by using a sham consultancy company, EightbyFive.

The current inquiry, which is also looking at dodgy donations disguised by sham arrangements, heard that, in early 2022, Whitelaw, then aged 21, had been working for upper house MP Matthew Mason-Cox when he was poached by Spence, who had returned from the political wilderness to run Roberts’ office.

Did Whitelaw recall Spence mentioning then-building commissioner David Chandler, he was asked.

He most certainly did.

“I recall Mr Spence coming into the office one morning, showing a video that he had obtained of the former building commissioner, Mr Chandler, and making comments around the fact that he was racist and there was corruption around it,” Whitelaw said.

He also said Spence, who was very close to then-fair trading minister Eleni Petinos, had hatched a plan for her to table the video in a parliamentary committee meeting. Whitelaw said Spence later complained Petinos had “f---ed it up” by not tabling the video.

During her opening address on Monday, counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, foreshadowed evidence suggesting that Strathfield Labor councillor Sharangan Maheswaran, who was working for disgraced developer Jean Nassif, may have been involved in Nassif’s attempts to oust the building commissioner, who had been critical of Nassif’s developments at Castle Hill.

The Herald has previously reported that Maheswaran was peddling the Chandler video, which did not contain racist remarks or suggest corruption, to various members of the press at the time.

Spence is no stranger to the “dark arts” of politics. After leaving school in 1992, he worked in the security industry and painted houses. He then joined the office of David Oldfield, who co-founded One Nation with Pauline Hanson in 1997, before the two founders had a bitter falling-out.

Spence later worked for former MP Chris Hartcher, who was also forced to resign over Operation Spicer.

While working for Hartcher, Spence played a key role in a scandal that became known as “Iguanagate”. This involved allegations of unseemly behaviour by federal Labor MP Belinda Neal, the wife of then-NSW minister for education John Della Bosca.

“Don’t you know who I am?” Neal is alleged to have screamed at staff in June 2008 while dining at Iguana Joe’s, a waterfront restaurant in Gosford.

The sworn statements of staff, some of which were later withdrawn, were witnessed by a justice of the peace, who just happened to be Liberal operative Chris Spence.

Della Bosca was stood down, while Neal was ordered to undertake an anger management course.

Counsel assisting’s opening address foreshadowed further mention of both Spence and Petinos, with allegations that Maheswaran, at the behest of Nassif, sought the assistance of “two public officials within NSW Parliament, namely, Eleni Petinos and Christopher Spence” to get rid of the building commissioner.

Meanwhile, how Whitelaw came to depart Roberts’ office abruptly in November 2022 after only 10 months has been the subject of much speculation in political circles. Whitelaw, who was living in the Southern Highlands, told the hearing he left due to the travel and “long work hours”.

The former Liberal staffer said he let his Liberal Party membership lapse in 2023 after he started work for the State Emergency Services, where he is now an acting deputy zone commander.