Did the former premier's brother, Charles Perrottet, have prior knowledge of a Covid-era New South Wales government policy to introduce a fast track to approve major developments? This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
On his third day in the witness box at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), Charles Perrottet was asked about meetings and texts that indicated he was aware of the government's plans well before they were announced.
ICAC is investigating allegations that Charles Perrottet, Jeremy Greenwood and Christian Ellis – all active members of the right faction of the Liberal party – took a $2m payment from Nassif, in breach of the NSW Electoral Funding Act. NSW has had a longstanding ban on political donations from developers.
Nassif had offered to appear on Friday via video link but produced a medical certificate to excuse himself.
ICAC is also investigating allegations that Nassif had sought political outcomes including the removal of the NSW Building commissioner, David Chandler, who had issued a number of remediation orders against Nassif's Toplace buildings and removal of Liberal councillors at Hills Shire council.
There is particular interest in Charles Perrottet, because he was the brother of Dominic Perrottet, the former NSW treasurer and later premier. Dominic Perrottet is not a person of interest in the ICAC inquiry.
Over the last three days, Charles Perrottet has told ICAC that he gave general advice to Nassif via a consultancy firm, Beckington. This included that Nassif should use a new fast-track process established by the NSW government and that Nassif should join the Property Council.
Charles claims he was not paid for his advice and it was not work, but instead the payments were made to his wife, Anita, as a kind of thank you from Beckington for his help.
But Dwyer has begun zeroing in on what else Charles Perrottet might have done to assist Nassif. That includes a meeting between Charles Perrottet and Greenwood and Nassif, on 11 December 2019, at which a payment described as "1%" was discussed.
Charles Perrottet agreed that 1% was a reference to a share of the value of Nassif's properties that were fast-tracked but was unsure about quite when. Three developments were mentioned – Mascot, "189", and "Garthowen".
Counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer SC read out texts from 11 December 2019 sent from Greenwood's phone to Ellis.
Greenwood: "The meeting was insane, ha ha ha ha."
Greenwood: "Yeah, but I'm definitely not putting the contents in the message, ha ha, ha ha."
As the Covid pandemic brought the NSW economy to a halt in 2020, many industries, including the construction industry, begged the then NSW treasurer, Dominic Perrottet, who was leading the government's Covid economic strategy, for support.
On 3 April 2020, Dominic Perrottet, and the planning minister, Rob Stokes, jointly announced a new fast-track approval process for construction projects.
The fast track introduced a "one-stop shop" for industry to progress projects that may be "stuck in the system" and fast-track assessments of state significant developments, rezonings and development applications (DAs). A key criterion was whether the projects would create jobs within the next six months. They needed to be well advanced in terms of planning.
The program was rolled out in six tranches. The first tranche was mainly government projects, such as Snowy Hydro, schools and industrial projects such as recycling plants.
In tranche three, on 21 June 2020, the government announced it was fast-tracking an amendment to the Hills Shire local environment plan relating to North Castle Hill.
Nassif owned about 6,000 sq metres of property spread over nine blocks on Garthowen Crescent and Old Northern Rd, Castle Hill.
According to reports at the time, the foreshadowed change increased the area's zoning to high density creating an estimated 60% increase in land value, delivering a windfall to Nassif. After Toplace collapsed in April 2023 the site was sold to another developer.
In August 2020, another one of Toplace's projects, 189 Macquarie Street, Parramatta, was approved as part of tranche five.
It was one of only a handful of high-rise residential projects that were fast-tracked through the scheme. The approval allowed Toplace to increase the height of the residential tower to 167 metres making it the tallest building in Parramatta and increasing its floor space.