An education funding expert says alleged illegal donations by Catholic Schools NSW to Liberal party operatives, under investigation by the state corruption watchdog, show governments need to check taxpayer funding was “being spent according to its purposes” and not funnelled into political donations. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) is investigating allegations that political donations were made by Catholic Schools NSW “in amounts that were not declared and exceeded applicable donation caps”. It is alleged the donations were arranged and approved by the Catholic Schools NSW chief executive, Dallas McInerney, to recruit or renew members to the party – a practice known as “branch stacking”. Catholic Schools NSW is the governing body for nearly 600 schools.
Trevor Cobbold, the convenor of the advocacy group Save our Schools and a former Productivity Commission economist, said the commonwealth and state governments should act alongside the Icac investigation “in the face of very serious allegations” to jointly audit Catholic Schools NSW. Cobbold said nearly 80% of funding for Catholic schools comes from federal and state funding, or around $3.8bn in 2024. As a registered charity with the Australian Charities and Not-for-profits Commission (ACNC), it would be at risk of losing its charitable status and tax exemptions if it is found to have a “disqualifying political purpose”.
“The commonwealth department of education, the federal minister for education, and the New South Wales minister for education can’t stand aside as if they are uninterested observers,” Cobbold said. “They have specific responsibilities that are not those of Icac … to ensure that public money is being spent according to its purposes and in order to do that they need to have a joint audit of the books of Catholic Schools NSW.”
NSW premier Chris Minns said his government would wait for the Icac investigation to begin, but ruled out an immediate audit of Catholic Schools NSW. “We don’t have any plans to do it … I think we should wait for that to at least begin,” Minns said.
A spokesperson for the NSW Liberal leader, Kellie Sloane, declined to comment. Sloane previously said “no stone should be left unturned” regarding the possibility of public funds being used in alleged donations.
The NSW Greens have called for a separate audit of Catholic Schools NSW and renewed their push to stop public funding of private schools. “The idea that public funds going to Catholic schools and being misused and misappropriated is outrageous. Any school that is alleged to have engaged in corrupt conduct should have all public funds denied until the investigation is conducted,” said Tamara Smith, the NSW Greens education spokesperson.
The federal education department and the NSW Education Standards Authority (NESA) refused to comment. A NESA spokesperson said “as these matters are the subject of an active Icac investigation we are unable to comment”.
The ACNC said it was aware of Icac’s investigation and would monitor it. Cobbold argued two inquiries could run concurrently, pointing to the royal commission into antisemitism taking place alongside the criminal investigation of the Bondi terror attack.
The Icac probe is part of a wider investigation of allegations against individuals connected to the Liberal party including McInerney, property developer Jean Nassif, and two brothers of the former Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, Jean-Claude and Charles, who all have previously denied wrongdoing. Perrottet is not accused of any wrongdoing.
McInerney was appointed as the inaugural chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW in 2017. The former member of the Liberal state executive is a factional ally of the federal Liberal leader, Angus Taylor.