{"id":76989,"date":"2026-08-21T02:47:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:47:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76989\/"},"modified":"2026-08-21T02:47:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-21T02:47:09","slug":"catholic-schools-nsw-ceo-dallas-mcinerney-sacked-after-fronting-anti-corruption-commission","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/76989\/","title":{"rendered":"Catholic Schools NSW CEO Dallas McInerney sacked after fronting anti-corruption commission"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Catholic Schools NSW (CSNSW) has sacked chief executive Dallas McInerney, days after he appeared before a state corruption watchdog inquiry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr McInerney is a key person of interest in the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) investigation.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The inquiry is examining allegations that he potentially broke NSW donation laws by directing hundreds of thousands of dollars through sham invoices to a right-wing Liberal Party faction known as the NSW Reformers.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Man in dark suit at media microhones\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/93e01aaa260b601620530d34f3262577.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Earlier in the week, Mr McInerney said he was unlikely to return to CSNSW. (AAP: Bianca De Marchi)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr McInerney had temporarily stood aside as head of CSNSW after ICAC announced it was examining whether the organisation made donations that were arranged and approved by him, were not declared, exceeded legal limits, and were used to recruit Liberal Party members or renew existing memberships.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">CSNSW has authority over almost 600 Catholic schools across the state.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">In a statement, the CSNSW board said it unanimously determined that it had lost confidence in Mr McInerney&#8217;s ability to &#8220;lead the organisation into the future&#8221; and had therefore terminated his employment.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"A sign for the ICAC outside a closed elevator.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/c0a57cf35f8e5bdb31866b12dea48a25.jpeg\" loading=\"lazy\" data-component=\"Image\" data-lazy=\"true\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP FigureCaption_text__zDxQ5 Typography_sizeMobile12__w_FPC Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption in Sydney. (ABC News)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;Counsel Assisting the Commission stated that there was no suggestion that CSNSW is responsible for the alleged conduct being investigated by the Commission, nor that any CSNSW Board or executive were aware of the alleged actions of Mr McInerney,&#8221; the board said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;The matters that are the subject of the Inquiry are, though, of deep concern to CSNSW and to its key stakeholders.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">On Monday, Mr McInerney conceded it was unlikely he would return to CSNSW.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-07-25\/nsw-key-figures-icac-investigation-liberals-jean-nassif\/106951590\" data-component=\"FullBleedLink\" class=\"RelatedCard_link__rsgR9 FullBleedLink_root__lTw_U interactive_focusContext__yRhc_ interactive_defaults__AKxUU FullBleedLink_showVisited__g3Xvz\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The key figures in ICAC investigation<\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"Typography_base__sj2RP RelatedCard_synopsis__cFwMW Typography_sizeMobile14__u7TGe Typography_lineHeightMobile20___U7Vr Typography_regular__WeIG6 Typography_colourInherit__dfnUx\" data-component=\"Typography\">Eight weeks of public hearings by the ICAC that could change the NSW Liberal Party forever begin on Monday.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">During his third day of evidence, Mr McInerney <a class=\"Link_link__5eL5m ScreenReaderOnly_srLinkHint__OysWz Link_showVisited__C1Fea Link_showFocus__ALyv2\" href=\"https:\/\/www.abc.net.au\/news\/2026-08-19\/icac-rosny-hearings-dallas-mcinerney-wipes-phone\/107054290\" data-component=\"Link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">also admitted to wiping his work phone and iPad<\/a>, despite knowing the devices could contain messages relevant to the inquiry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I knew what I was doing. The factory reset is a factory reset,&#8221; Mr McInerney told the commission.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He said nobody instructed him to perform a factory reset and that he had not consulted his lawyers or CSNSW about the implications of doing so.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr McInerney also told the probe he returned both devices to CSNSW after wiping them, despite the organisation not having asked for their return.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Counsel assisting the commission, Peggy Dwyer SC, labelled his actions as a &#8220;transparent attempt&#8221; to destroy evidence.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Catholic Schools NSW (CSNSW) has sacked chief executive Dallas McInerney, days after he appeared before a state corruption&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":76990,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,8137,68560,33171,596,63915,33168,33167,13635],"class_list":["post-76989","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-icac","tag-icac-rosny","tag-jean-nassif","tag-nsw","tag-nsw-independent-commission-against-corruption","tag-nsw-liberal-party","tag-operation-rosny","tag-political-donations"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76989","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=76989"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/76989\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/76990"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=76989"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=76989"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=76989"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}