Icac hits paydirt as Reformers’ ‘shit sheets’ are given a very public airing

From time to time, dirt files – crudely known as shit sheets – flutter around the corridors of power in state and federal parliaments.They can be enormously damaging even if never published. While there might be speculation as to their origin, rarely is there confirmation – especially if the dirt file emanates from your own side.But on Wednesday, the New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption hit paydirt, uncovering a document – and a text trail indicating its origin – that painted a very unflattering portrait of the former NSW police minister David Elliott.Equally, it paints an unflattering picture of politics in the NSW Liberal party and potentially serious perversion of the system.Icac is investigating allegations that members of a secretive rightwing sub-faction of the NSW Liberals – the Reformers – took undeclared political donations, including from banned donors like developers and hoteliers, and in amounts that exceeded donation caps.We have already heard allegations that Catholic Schools NSW, a charity that distributes funding to the state’s catholic schools, made undeclared payments totalling $260,000 and that the hotelier Michael O’Hara also contributed more than $150,000.Hotelier Michael O’Hara gave evidence at the Icac hearings on Tuesday. Photograph: Dan Himbrechts/AAPThe counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer SC has also hinted there will be further revelations about $2m paid by the fugitive developer Jean Nassif to the key players.Nassif’s largesse to the Reformers almost certainly had less to do with the conservative values on abortion and same-sex marriage that motivated other financial backers. It is alleged by Dwyer it had much more to do with getting rid of the then building commissioner David Chandler and critics of Nassif’s buildings such as the former Baulkham Hills MP David Elliott.In the witness box on Wednesday the most junior of the Reformers, Dylan Whitelaw, was asked about the work he did on a 2021 document titled “David Elliot shit sheet.docx”, while working at a public relations company owned by two other Reformers, Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood.Whitelaw admitted he had compiled a document at the request of Greenwood and had included references to unflattering articles about Elliott, such as when he was photographed as police minister firing an illegal firearm at a corrections department firing range.“I think it comes back to the standard factional warfare that occurs inside political parties. ‘Distaste’ maybe is the incorrect word, but the right wing of the Liberal party had hatred of the centre-right or the Alex Hawke faction, of which Mr Elliot was a leading figure,” Whitelaw told Icac.But Whitelaw said he did not recall writing a section that suggested Elliott had engaged in an extramarital affair. It might have been added later, Whitelaw said. He had heard of the existence of photos but had not seen them.“The allegation around Mr Elliot and the affair was something that Mr Greenwood and Mr Ellis kept very, very secretive,” Whitelaw said.Elliott, who is not under investigation by Icac, issued a statement to the Sydney Morning Herald on Wednesday denying the affair.“As most of Sydney knows I’m a devoted husband of 30 years to a beautiful woman who doesn’t deserve to be treated like this by the party she has sacrificed so much for,” he said in the statement.“Needless to say I’m looking forward to the possibility of providing my own observations should the commission see fit to invite me to give evidence.”But was it just factional rough and tumble?“I want to suggest to you, Mr Whitelaw … that this document was prepared at the instruction of Mr Greenwood by you to further certain interests that Mr Nassif had,” counsel assisting Juliet Curtin said.“At the time, I had no idea. At the time, it would appear to me as just standard factional warfare. On reflection, absolutely, that’s what it appears to be,” Whitelaw replied.More signs of dirty tricks emerged in relation to Chandler. In 2022, Whitelaw was working for the planning minister, Anthony Roberts, reporting to chief of staff Christopher Spence.Whitelaw gave evidence that Spence was excited about a video he had received from an undisclosed source. Whitelaw said Spence claimed the video showed Chandler in an unflattering light.Whitelaw said Spence told him he gave the video to the Liberal MP Eleni Petinos to use in a parliamentary committee, but Spence later said “Eleni fucked it up”.Neither Spence nor Petinos have been named as subjects of the Icac Investigation.Meanwhile, the federal opposition leader, Angus Taylor, faced more questions about whether he had contributed to the Reformers, as indicated in text exchanges shown as evidence.In one, Whitelaw told the Reformers WhatsApp group that the head of Catholic Schools NSW Dallas McInerney had told him Taylor was tipping in $15,000 plus $3,000 a month. Another screenshot of a text from McInerney indicated he planned to “shake down Angus for $10k”.“I’m not going to give a running commentary on all of this. I’m not a party to the proceedings, but no payment was made,” Taylor said on Wednesday.Asked about the text message, he said: “No payment was made and I’ll let the commission do its job.” Taylor is not under investigation by Icac.Icac is also curious to discover why, around the time of the text exchanges about financial support from Taylor in March 2021, the monthly amount being paid by Catholic Schools to Ellis and Greenwood’s company Beckington increased by $3,000 a month.Whitelaw said he did not know. But he was sure he never received a bonus of $8,000 that was also referred to.