NSW Liberal MLC Damien Tudehope is not named in any allegations and is not accused of wrongdoing by Icac. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAPView image in fullscreenNSW Liberal MLC Damien Tudehope is not named in any allegations and is not accused of wrongdoing by Icac. Photograph: Bianca de Marchi/AAP‘Scott and Damien are afraid’: senior Liberal quizzed at Icac about former staffer’s message NSW shadow attorney general, Damien Tudehope, tells inquiry Jean-Claude Perrottet had a talent for recruiting
A senior New South Wales Liberal says the younger brother of former Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet had a “talent” for recruiting and renewing new members to the party, a corruption inquiry has heard.
On Tuesday, NSW shadow attorney general and Liberal leader in the upper house, Damien Tudehope gave evidence as part of the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s (Icac) Operation Rosny, where he was also asked about a 2018 message in which his former staffer, and younger brother of the former premier, Jean-Claude Perrottet, wrote to other Reformers that “Scott and Damien are afraid”.
The inquiry is investigating allegations the Reformers solicited or accepted illegal donations to recruit or renew members to the party, a practice known as branch stacking, which is not itself illegal.
Tudehope, who has stood aside from his shadow cabinet roles during the inquiry, is not named in any allegations and is not accused of any wrongdoing.
Tudehope, whose name has been mentioned frequently during the first two weeks of hearings, gave evidence about the time Reformers Jean-Claude Perrottet and Christian Ellis spent in his electorate and ministerial offices.
He admitted that Jean-Claude, younger brother of former Liberal premier, Dominic Perrottet, had a “talent” for recruiting and renewing new members to the party, which he said was essential for any Liberal member looking to keep hold of their seat at preselection.
“[Jean-Claude] had a fairly wide connection of friends, which he was able to marshal together and exploit. Which is well, I won’t say exploit, but sort of get to do things for him.”
Dominic Perrottet has not been accused of any wrongdoing, while Jean-Claude Perrottet has previously denied any wrongdoing. Jean-Claude Perrottet worked in Tudehope’s electorate office in 2018 and in his parliamentary office in 2019, when Tudehope was minister for finance.
Asked about a 2018 message in which Jean-Claude Perrottet wrote to other Reformers that “Scott and Damien are afraid”. Recognising “Scott” as the former head of his electorate office, Tudehope said he did not recall raising concerns or being aware that Jean-Claude may have been using his hours as an electorate officer in recruiting Liberal members, although it may have “potentially arisen”.
Tudehope described a later incident in which his chief of staff “blew up” about a newspaper article about staffers spending ministerial hours on recruitment, against their code of conduct.
The inquiry heard that Ellis was only employed as a staffer in Tudehope’s ministerial office for three months before being terminated in July 2019. Tudehope said that the article “was probably the precipitating event” for Ellis’s dismissal.
The Reformers, part of same the conservative right faction as Tudehope, wanted more conservative policies on same-sex marriage, abortion and euthanasia. Tudehope, who admitted to speaking at multiple Reformers recruitment events, defended himself as “a warrior for social issues for the party”.
After being shown evidence of a bank transfer and one message from Jean-Claude Perrottet wrote that “Damien” had paid for a venue for an event, and another – “Damien got it” – which suggested he had contributed $5000 for a Reformers table at a right faction event, Tudehope admitted he may have made payments to the Reformers.
His son, James Tudehope, is not named in allegations but has declined a request to give evidence to Icac after moving to New Zealand earlier this year.
Tudehope told the inquiry on Tuesday that his son, while an employee of Catholic Schools NSW, had raised concerns “at a Sunday lunch” about payments allegedly being made by the schools governing body to Beckington, a lobbying company controlled by Ellis.
“He said to me that, ‘I’m being pressured to pay an invoice for Christian Ellis, and I just don’t think we should be paying it’.”
Tudehope’s former business partner , hotelier Michael O’Hara, is alleged to have made political donations to the Reformers, prohibited because of his involvement in the liquor and gambling industries.
Under questioning from counsel assisting, Peggy Dwyer SC, Tudehope accepted that he introduced Reformers Ellis and Robert Assaf to O’Hara, and that he was aware O’Hara was “generous” and would be likely to support their factional work financially.
But like O’Hara, the inquiry’s first witness last week, Tudehope disputed whether payments to the Reformers, who were not a registered party, would count as political donations.
“If you think that I would expose a friend of mine to that level of scrutiny that he was exposed to, 83 years of age with stage ... four cancer, do you think that I would have done that in circumstances where I knew that he would be a prohibited donor for the purposes of the Electoral Funding Act, not on your life.”
Retired businessman Frits Maré, a key witness at a 2023 parliamentary inquiry which preceded Icac’s public inquiry, was the first witness on Tuesday.
Maré told the commission about a 2020 meeting in which Reformers Jean-Claude Perrottet and Christian Ellis asked him to contribute $50,000 to an operation to unseat Liberal member for Mitchell, Alex Hawke.
Maré, a Liberal party member who is not named in any allegations and is not accused of any wrongdoing, said the men asked him for funding for a call centre to sign up new Liberal members, so that they could “get enough people to challenge Alex Hawke in his seat and then vote him out”.
“I found it strange,” says Maré. “I thought the sitting member was doing a good job in parliament.”
