Former New South Wales fair trading minister Eleni Petinos has given evidence at a corruption inquiry that she may have been used by fellow Liberals to try to get rid of the building commissioner David Chandler, recounting numerous attempts in 2022 to persuade her he was "dodgy" and should be sacked. This was reported by Qazaqyia.kz citing The Guardian.
She has also told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) inquiry that her subsequent sacking as a minister in the Dominic Perrottet government in July 2022 – allegedly for bullying staff – was unfair and potentially motivated by her reluctance to sack the building commissioner.
"Have you come to suspect that you … you or your office through [your chief of staff] was being in effect used to try to get rid of Mr Chandler?" the counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC asked.
"Subsequently, yes," Petinos replied.
"I thought there was something very strange at play for Dominic to take the action that he did so swiftly or so coldly and without the opportunity to even put me in front of the cameras. That seemed bizarre," she told Icac on Thursday.
Petinos gave evidence that on Friday 27 July 2022, Perrottet, who was overseas in India, had been supportive after the bullying allegations against her were published. But by Sunday night, he had decided to sack her.
In the interim, Chandler had resigned, lodging an incendiary resignation letter with the departmental head, Emma Hogan, that alleged undue influence on the Liberal government by developers, and a lack of support by Petinos and her staff. He was later reinstated, Icac heard. The event has raised serious questions about whether he was being undermined by some elements of the government.
Petinos told Icac that soon after she became the fair trading minister in December 2021, she had had conversations with several other Liberal staffers about Chandler. She said around the time she was appointed, Charles Perrottet, the premier's brother and a rightwing power broker within the Liberal party, suggested to her Chandler was "dodgy".
Charles Perrottet is a person of interest in Operation Rosny, which is investigating alleged payments totalling $2m from the fugitive developer Jean Nassif to the Liberal party operatives Charles Perrottet, Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood. It is also looking at other payments made to a group of Liberal party rightwing operatives known as the Reformers, and whether these breach donations laws. Persons of interest in relation to this allegation are Jean-Claude Perrotet, Greenwood, Ellis and Robert Assaf.
Chandler has vigorously denied that he took bribes or had done anything wrong in relation to the informal list of building inspectors. He is expected to give evidence later in the inquiry. Charles Perrottet is expected to appear before Icac in coming weeks.
Jean-Claude Perrottet and Jeremy Greenwood have given evidence in relation to one allegation before Icac and have denied any wrongdoing in relation to taking illegal donations. Greenwood is expected to be recalled to give evidence in relation to another allegation relating to payments from Nassif. Ellis is in London and has so far refused to cooperate with Icac.
Dominic Perrottet, the former premier and brother of Charles and Jean-Claude, and Petinos have not been named as persons of interest.
Petinos agreed that she and Chandler had "robust conversations" in her office, that she had received complaints about his behaviour on building sites, and on one occasion a meeting with owners corporation representatives in her office with him had "deteriorated into a screaming match". But she agreed he was a tough regulator in a tough industry.
However, Petinos's longtime friend Chris Spence, the former MP for the Entrance, kept contacting her and her chief of staff Cassandra Lawry about Chandler. In 2022 Spence was working as chief of staff for the planning minister Anthony Roberts. Spence had hinted in around April that year that he had a video of Chandler. He is expected to appear before Icac soon. At first he had been vague about what was in the video, but by June 2022 he kept ringing her office about it. "I don't believe that he got into the detail of the video but he was insistent," Petinos said.
She also told Icac that the then Nationals leader John Barilaro had played her an audio recording around April of Chandler on a building site making racist slurs. "He raised, not that there were any concerns that Mr Chandler was acting in a corrupt manner, but that Mr Chandler's language may have been upsetting to me." Petinos discussed it with Hogan, who was technically Chandler's boss, saying there were concerns in the industry that Chandler was targeting "wogs".