{"id":77934,"date":"2026-08-22T12:49:25","date_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:49:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/77934\/"},"modified":"2026-08-22T12:49:25","modified_gmt":"2026-08-22T12:49:25","slug":"former-nsw-police-minister-david-elliott-threatens-legal-action-against-slanderous-comments","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/77934\/","title":{"rendered":"Former NSW police minister David Elliott threatens legal action against &#8216;slanderous&#8217; comments"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Former NSW Liberal minister David Elliott has said he will take legal action against those he believes have said &#8220;slanderous things&#8221; about him, following a corruption watchdog hearing.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is examining whether donations linked to fugitive property developer Jean Nassif were exchanged for political favours, including attempts to damage Mr Elliott&#8217;s career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">On Friday, the former police minister gave evidence to ICAC.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">After taking the stand, Mr Elliott told reporters outside that he would be talking to his lawyer about taking legal action against those he believed &#8220;need to be pursued&#8221;, but stopped short of naming anyone specifically.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He said the &#8220;battle&#8221; of fighting corruption in the parliament was not over, and claimed there were still people in the Liberal shadow ministry &#8220;who gave evidence to criminals&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;We still have people in that parliamentary party, in the NSW parliament who were a party to the corruption that we&#8217;ve seen not only today but over the last month,&#8221;  Mr Elliott said.<img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"David Elliott speaks outside a CBD office building, wearing a black suit and striped tie.\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/87e8745818beeb88418c2c9e22eba559.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\">Mr Elliott said the fight against corruption in NSW parliament &#8220;was not over&#8221;. (ABC News: Greg Bigelow)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The ICAC previously heard allegations that senior Liberal MPs Chris Rath and Damien Tudehope remained in contact with people trying to avoid giving evidence to a 2023 parliamentary inquiry.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Rath allegedly helped lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood stay informed about efforts to serve him with a summons, while Mr Tudehope was accused of passing a confidential committee report to Mr Greenwood.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Tudehope has not been accused of wrongdoing, while Mr Greenwood and other persons of interest in the inquiry have not been charged with any crimes.<\/p>\n<p>Surveillance photos &#8216;very creepy&#8217;<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Elliott told the inquiry he now believed Mr Nassif influenced the decision to remove him as police minister in a 2021 cabinet reshuffle.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Elliott linked the move to Mr Nassif&#8217;s 2019 arrest for cocaine possession at The Star casino, saying the developer may have blamed him for police being at the casino.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">&#8220;I think Nassif had probably made it clear to the hard-right that because he&#8217;d got arrested for cocaine, that I wasn&#8217;t to be trusted with the police force,&#8221; Mr Elliott said.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Fugitive property developer Jean Nassif looks at the camera\" class=\"Image_image__5tFYM ContentImage_image__DQ_cq\"  src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/183770599c74139a9a64523812d3445e.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\">Mr Elliott told the inquiry that he believed Mr Nassif was behind a campaign against him. (Background Briefing: Cherine Yazbeck, file photo)<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">The inquiry previously heard NSW Liberal Party operatives allegedly compiled a &#8220;David Elliott shit sheet&#8221; \u2014 a dossier of political and personal allegations aimed at damaging his career.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Elliott told ICAC he believed Mr Nassif was behind a campaign of negative media stories against him, after he responded to community concerns about one of his developments.<\/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\">Mr Elliott said Mr Nassif later confronted him twice and left a message on his phone threatening to &#8220;get&#8221; him.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">He also told the inquiry private investigators followed him and his wife, describing surveillance images of his wife as &#8220;very creepy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Elliott said Mr Nassif allegedly pressured his former chief of staff to provide information about him and warned that his political career could be over.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Mr Elliott ultimately decided not to seek Liberal preselection for Castle Hill because he said branch-stacking had made it clear the seat would go to a candidate from the party&#8217;s &#8220;religious right&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph_paragraph___QITb\">Asked about his characterisation of the factions within the NSW Liberal Party, Mr Elliott said: &#8220;Depending on who you&#8217;re talking to, some call it the hard right, some call it the right, some call it the religious right, some call it the cult.&#8221;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Former NSW Liberal minister David Elliott has said he will take legal action against those he believes have&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":77935,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[22,21,33169,114782,19536,8137,3965,63915,33167,13635,68400],"class_list":["post-77934","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-australia","tag-au","tag-austrlia","tag-catholic-schools-nsw","tag-csnsw","tag-david-elliott","tag-icac","tag-liberal-party","tag-nsw-independent-commission-against-corruption","tag-operation-rosny","tag-political-donations","tag-the-reformers"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77934","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=77934"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/77934\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/77935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=77934"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=77934"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/australia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=77934"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}