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<\/p>\nThe co-founder of a secretive NSW Liberal Party sub-faction has told a corruption inquiry he did not think the law governing political fundraising applied to them.<\/p>\n
The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating whether members of the NSW Reformers accepted money from prohibited political donors, including property developers and hoteliers.<\/p>\n
NSW Reformers co-founder Robert Assaf told the inquiry on Thursday he “just didn’t think the law applied” to them because he viewed the group as an internal faction rather than a political organisation.<\/p>\n
“Ignorance of the law is no excuse,” Counsel Assisting Peggy Dwyer SC said, pointing out that Mr Assaf had worked for various federal MPs and as a branch president for years.<\/p>\n
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Peggy Dwyer said “ignorance of the law is no excuse” in her cross-examination. (Supplied: ICAC)<\/p>\n
‘Bogus’ arrangements<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf later conceded to the commission he knew that a financial arrangement between hotelier Michael O’Hara and Christian Ellis’s lobbying firm Beckington was to fund the work of the NSW Reformers.<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf gave evidence that he was aware Mr O’Hara had been making $5,000 monthly payments from his company Paslibdan Pty Ltd to Beckington for ‘consulting’ work which was never provided.<\/p>\n
Dr Dwyer suggested it was a “bogus” arrangement.<\/p>\n
“What he was doing was hiding, in effect, or setting up an arrangement whereby there would be no clear record that Mr O’Hara was donating directly to the reformers,” Dr Dwyer said.<\/p>\n
The donations were later transferred to a bank account controlled by Jean-Claude Perrottet, the brother of former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, under the same guise of invoicing for consulting work, the commission heard.<\/p>\n
Dominic Perrottet, who referred the allegations to ICAC in 2022, is not accused of any wrongdoing.<\/p>\n
Recruitment tactics<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf also shed light on the inner workings of the religious right-wing group which he founded alongside Mr Ellis in 2018.<\/p>\n
Documents shown to the commission reveal the NSW Reformers aimed to recruit 5,000 Christian conservatives to take control of the NSW division of the Liberal Party.<\/p>\n
“Good news. The New South Wales reformers have officially taken their first branch. Coffs Harbour is now officially ours,” Mr Assaf would text Mr O’Hara later that year, after the group engineered a right-wing takeover of the branch.<\/p>\n
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Michael O’Hara gave evidence earlier this week. (Supplied: ICAC)<\/p>\n
By 2020, the NSW Reformers had recruited 1,200 new members to the Liberal Party and secured state executive representation, the commission heard.<\/p>\n
However, Mr Assaf told Dr Dwyer the group was “very amateur”.<\/p>\n
“The Reformers sound really spooky in the media right now, but it was just a bunch of 20-year-old people trying to figure things out,” he said, later conceding they had considerable success with recruitment.<\/p>\n
Through stealth<\/p>\n
In another document shown to the commission, a NSW Reformers educational manual described a need to “to take over left wing branches through stealth”.<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf denied this was their intention.<\/p>\n
“Ideally [we] would not want to take branches through stealth. Ideally, we just want to take branches. You know, I prefer to be a frontstabber than a backstabber,” Mr Assaf said.<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf conceded the group did strategically place new members in certain local branches.<\/p>\n
“Christians obviously don’t like lying. No one does. No one should,” Mr Assaf told the commission.<\/p>\n
“So you can’t just be a full, sneaky person trying to infiltrate a left-wing branch. But there was a strategy to it, and some people need to be more comfortable with that than others.”<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf told the ICAC the NSW Reformers were not involved in branch stacking, such as paying for Liberal Party memberships.<\/p>\n
He was later taken to evidence he gave in a private examination in June where he said key Reformer Jean-Claude Perrottet had told him he was reimbursing the cost of memberships for friends.<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf told the commission Jean-Claude Perrottet was being pressured by his brother, Charles Perrottet, who was on the Liberal state executive and co-founder Mr Ellis to “ramp up recruitment” in the Hills District, north-west of Sydney.<\/p>\n
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Mr Assaf alleged Angus Taylor was aware of the activities of the NSW Reformers. (ABC News: Callum Flinn)<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf told the commission federal Opposition Leader Angus Taylor was aware of the activities of the NSW Reformers and “definitely wasn’t opposed”.<\/p>\n
Angus Taylor, who is not accused of any wrongdoing, was again pressed by reporters on Thursday about whether he financially supported the group’s efforts.<\/p>\n
“I have answered these questions yesterday. I’ m not going to give a running commentary on it,” Mr Taylor said, after previously denying making payments.<\/p>\n
“You can ask the question 100 times, I’ll give you the same answer\u2026”<\/p>\n
Mr Assaf said the key backers of the group federally were former senator Concetta Fierravanti Wells and former prime minister Tony Abbott, who had spoken at their events.<\/p>\n
In NSW the key backers were former NSW minister Damien Tudehope and MP Anthony Roberts, while former premier Dominic Perrottet had been “pretty absent in the whole thing but supportive from what I understood”.<\/p>\n