Hello and welcome to the Herald’s live coverage of the ICAC’s Operation Rosny public hearings.

I’m state political reporter Jessica McSweeney, and along with the Herald’s senior writers, we’ll be bringing you all the latest updates as they happen from today’s hearing.

Today we’re expecting to hear from businessman Frits Mare, who gave evidence to the 2023 parliamentary inquiry into branch stacking in the Hills that Jean-Claude Perrottet and Christian Ellis, both persons of interest in this ICAC inquiry, asked Mare for $50,000 to fund a branch operation to unseat Scott Morrison’s right-hand man Alex Hawke from his federal electorate. Mare wanted no part in their scheme.

We’ll also hear from upper house MP Damien Tudehope, who stood down as shadow attorney general when he received his summons to appear as a witness. Tudehope has not been accused in wrongdoing, but is expected to answer questions about his connections to a right-wing factional group called the Reformers.

Here’s what we covered yesterday:

• Robert Assaf revealed he met with fellow person of interest Jeremy Greenwood at a Belfield cafe to discuss their summons to the ICAC, knowing full well he was not meant to discuss it. The pair went for a walk and deliberately left their electronic devices in Greenwood’s car to avoid being traced.
• Assaf agreed Greenwood was trying to “standardise the message” and wanted to “align” evidence before key Reformers spoke to the ICAC.
• Jean-Claude Perrottet, a key Reformer and Catholic Schools NSW staffer, told fellow Reformer Christian Ellis in a text message that he was doing political work without being compensated fairly, while claiming Assaf received “$135k for Rob to work for faction”. The commission heard $135,000 was Assaf’s salary at the schools body, he denied he was paid for political work.
• Assaf said there were widespread concerns, as well as “jokes and insinuations”, in the right faction of the Liberal Party around Ellis’s connection to Nassif’s Toplace.
• It became a joke among Assaf’s associates, including Toplace lawyer Sharangan Maheswaran, that Assaf was a “rat” for wanting to appear before the 2023 parliamentary inquiry and be honest. Some would send him rat emojis, and he would be fed false information to try and weed out who he was speaking with, Assaf said.

The ICAC is also livestreaming the hearing here.