How a series of urgent texts warned of a major corruption scandal

The texts that warned Gladys Berejiklian about a looming Liberal corruption scandal Fri 24 Jul 2026 at 5:08am Nineteen months before making the parliamentary speech that sparked a corruption inquiry into NSW Liberal figures and their relationship with a fugitive property developer, then-parliamentary secretary Ray Williams sent an urgent text message to his boss, then-premier Gladys Berejiklian. "Hey Glad, would really like to talk to you [about] the Right trying to move 3 branches into our local Gov conference," he wrote in November 2020. The "right" Williams was referring to was the NSW Liberals' hard-right faction — bitter enemies of Williams's own faction, the centre-right. He was trying to warn Berejiklian about moves by the right faction to add Liberal Party branches to the Hills Shire local government area, in north-west Sydney, in a bid to control council preselections there. "It's completely uncalled for and just an attempt to put [councillors] into the Hills Council who support a particular developer," he wrote. The "particular developer" was the infamous Jean Nassif, whose company, Toplace, had been frustrated by refusals of his development proposals by the current Hills Shire council. For the additional branches to be accepted, the proposal had to be supported in a ballot of the NSW Liberal state executive. Berejiklian had a representative on the executive and Williams was urging her to direct him to abstain. "Raymondo, I'll call you first thing in the morning Darl," Berejiklian replied, using a nickname for Williams. 'There is going to be trouble for you if this goes ahead' The next day Berejiklian texted with an update. "Raymondo, FYI [then-police minister David Elliott] and I [are] trying to calm the troops and delay. So far no one is budging". Williams responded with a sharper warning that she risked being implicated. "Well I believe there is going to be trouble for you if this goes ahead," he wrote. "A formal complaint regarding those pushing this has gone to head office and it involves a very big developer and people on our exec with severe conflicts of interest given their role as lobbyists and who their clients are." Williams added that the Hills Shire councillors were "good people doing the right thing by the community". "Now they will be corrupted by those wishing to get [councillors] that will support a particular developer … those days should be well and truly behind us but unfortunately there are some who still foster those corrupt ideals, not us. "Why would you support this when it is so dangerous," Williams asked Berejiklian. "By abstaining you don't support either way, which in this case is what I would expect a leader to do." On the day of the ballot, Williams again texted Berejeklian asking for confirmation that her representative would abstain. "I'm not getting involved in this Ray," Berejiklian shot back. "I'm sick of everyone trying to embroil me in factional issues. I have too much on my plate." Williams protested that it was "much bigger than factionalism" as it was about "corruption by a few on state executive". Berejiklian: "You need to report it." Williams: "I certainly am." Berejiklian: "Good!!" The motion to move the additional branches into the Hills local government area was passed. Berejiklian did not respond to questions about the state executive ballot. Williams's text messages to Berejiklian were one of the earliest signs of a growing scandal inside the NSW Liberal party — one that ultimately culminated in one of the biggest corruption inquiries in recent NSW history. Operation Rosny An anticipated eight-week public hearing by the Independent Commission Against Corruption beginning on Monday, codenamed Operation Rosny, threatens to wreak enormous reputational damage on the NSW Liberal party just months before a state election next March. The inquiry is investigating a raft of allegations, including that: Liberal Party figures solicited or accepted donations, including from prohibited donors, to recruit new members to stack branches; and unlawful donations were made by or on behalf of Jean Nassif and his company Toplace to Liberal Party figures, also for branch stacking. According to a source with knowledge of the numbers at the time, even with those new branches the hard right couldn't wrest control of the Hills local government area to determine the council preselections. Documents obtained by the ABC suggest that the group changed tack: using its representation on the party's local government oversight committee to force through an outcome. Charles Perrottet, brother of the then-treasurer and soon-to-become NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, was a member of the committee. Detailed notes of a committee meeting from late September 2021, later sent to ICAC, show Perrottet moved that the state executive should endorse the committee's recommended candidates for the Hills council. The notes record that "Charlie Perrottet … read out a list of names and recommended they be endorsed by the state executive as the candidates. No supporting paperwork was provided to the committee". They show that Perrottet also moved a recommendation that there be no nomination review process for candidates. And they record that the motions were supported by committee secretary Dallas McInerney — another subject of ICAC's Operation Rosny. ICAC has announced it is investigating whether McInerney — the CEO of Catholic Schools NSW and a prominent figure in the Liberals' hard right faction — approved and arranged for undeclared political donations that exceeded allowable caps to be made by Catholic Schools NSW "for purposes that included the recruitment and/or renewal of members of the Liberal Party". The following month, then-NSW Liberal president Phillip Ruddock announced the party would bypass the usual preselection procedure; in its place, a ticket endorsed by the state executive would contest the Hill Shire council election. The reason given: "It is the view of the State Executive that there was insufficient time for the selection of candidates as otherwise provided in the Constitution". Charles Perrottet did not respond to a list of questions about his alleged actions as a member of the local government oversight committee. An explosive dossier Six weeks later, a senior member of the centre-right faction turned to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, delivering to it a dossier of detailed, explosive allegations. The key allegation in the dossier was extraordinary. It alleged that NSW Liberal Party figures had acted with the developer, Jean Nassif, to pursue "an elaborate scheme of replacing current elected Councillors on the Hills council with a new mayor and new councillors who will be favourable to Mr Nassif and his future developments". "These actions which are now complete, will derive a huge personal benefit to Mr Nassif and his companies including Toplace from the subsequent development of his land in the Hills Shire." The dossier named Charles Perrottet and party member Christian Ellis — a former member of the state executive — as key figures behind the scheme, which was to be funded by Nassif. Property developers have been prohibited from making political donations in NSW elections since 2010. The referral to ICAC would initially come to nothing. In December 2021, a new council was elected, with a new Liberal mayor, Peter Gangemi, and majority Liberal councillors. Then, in March 2022, ICAC responded to the senior centre-right faction figure who'd sent it the dossier, saying it was not going to investigate. "Allegations relating to the internal workings of NSW political parties are not a matter that the Commission is able to assist with unless there is information to indicate a reasonable likelihood that the alleged conduct has affected how NSW public officials have carried out (or are carrying out) their public official functions," wrote then-ICAC commissioner Patricia McDonald, SC. "Despite the alleged political manoeuvring within the NSW Liberal Party affecting how the elected Council is constituted, allegations that new Councillors may be more supportive of developers are not sufficient to warrant investigation by the Commission". It said it had passed the information onto the NSW Electoral Commission. Around the same time, the ABC's Four Corners program had also obtained the dossier and began investigating the allegations. Two weeks before Four Corners was due to go to air with its findings, Ray Williams took an extraordinary step. Just before 6pm on June 23, 2022, Williams stood in parliament and delivered a series of bombshell allegations. "Apparently prior to the [Hills Shire] council elections Jean Nassif of Toplace met with Christian Ellis and other senior members of the Liberal Party, who were paid significant funds in order to arrange to put new councillors on The Hills Shire Council who would be supportive of future Toplace development applications," Williams told parliament. "If Christian Ellis, senior members of the Liberal Party, a former councillor and now member of the New South Wales Parliament, received financial benefit from Jean Nassif of Toplace in order to put new councillors on The Hills Shire Council who would subsequently be supportive of development applications on behalf of Toplace, then my community has good reason to be very concerned. This issue must be investigated." Dominic Perrottet, who had become NSW premier after Berejiklian resigned the previous October after ICAC announced it was investigating her over an unrelated matter, referred the allegations to the anti-corruption watchdog. When the Four Corners program, The War Within, went to air, it contained further explosive claims. It outlined a key meeting highlighted in the dossier between Charles Perrottet, Christian Ellis and Jean Nassif. The allegation was that at the meeting Perrottet put forward a proposal: that before the Hills council election, he and others could stack branches to influence the preselection of Liberal candidates supportive of Nassif's development, if Nassif would fund the operation. The program also contained allegations about a 2018 meeting involving Ellis and Charles Perrottet's brother, Jean-Claude Perrottet. As outlined in the dossier, the pair was alleged to have approached a Sydney businessman and Liberal Party member, Frits Mare, and asked him for $50,000 to bankroll branch stacking in the Hills district. During its investigation, Four Corners obtained a text message indicating the money was to be used to branch-stack in the federal seat of Mitchell to remove its sitting MP, Alex Hawke — a key powerbroker in the NSW Liberals centre-right faction. The text was sent to Mare by an associate, who tells Mare that he "still can't believe that approach to you by Christian Ellis and JC Perrottet" and that "$50k would stack more than Hawke's seat." Mr Mare later confirmed the details of the meeting in his evidence to a NSW parliamentary inquiry called into Ray Williams's allegations in 2023. He told the inquiry that he terminated the conversation and that no money was paid because "I wasn't interested". In a letter to the same parliamentary inquiry, Jean-Claude Perrottet said: "Given its timing on the eve of an election and the nature of the allegations made, it is also clear that the inquiry is being conducted to further political ends. This has been an extremely distressing time for me. "False allegations against me have been politicised and publicised and have taken a serious toll on my mental health." ICAC has since announced that Operation Rosny will examine allegations that Christian Ellis and Jean-Claude Perrottet "solicited or accepted political donations, including from prohibited donors, in amounts that were not declared and exceeded applicable donation caps, for purposes that included the recruitment and/or renewal of members to the Liberal Party". It will also examine whether Charles Perrottet, Ellis and others "solicited or accepted" unlawful political donations from Jean Nassif for branch stacking and "in exchange for the pursuit of outcomes sought by Mr Nassif". These outcomes included "damage to the political career of the Hon David Elliott MP and the removal of the Building Commissioner, David Chandler OAM, from public office and/or preventing him from exercising his official functions in respect of Mr Nassif's developments". Charles Perrottet declined to appear at the 2023 parliamentary inquiry, describing it in correspondence as a "Labor/Greens circus". Jean Nassif wrote to the inquiry from Lebanon, also declining to appear as a witness and disputing the claims made by Williams. NSW Police have an arrest warrant out for Nassif over alleged fraud-related offences. The parliamentary inquiry found that, based on Frits Mare's evidence, a meeting at which Christian Ellis and Jean-Claude Perrottet asked him for $50,000 to stack Alex Hawke's seat took place. It said that this finding and the "behaviour of witnesses" called to the inquiry "add weight" to the allegations made by Ray Williams in parliament. The next eight weeks will determine whether or not ICAC agrees. Loading...