Charles Perrottet questioned over fast-track approvals and alleged payments from developer Jean Nassif

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?

Did he take steps to ensure that developments owned by the fugitive developer, Jean Nassif, were successful through the fast track?

On his third day in the witness box at the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, Charles Perrottet was asked about meetings and texts that indicated he was aware of the government’s plans well before they were announced.

The 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.

Fast track approvals

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.”

Ellis: “Was it good?”

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.

The Mascot project was not mentioned in the first six tranches.

A subsequent NSW Audit Office report found the program had generally been well run but said it had not adequately managed conflicts of interest.

On Monday, Charles was shown texts between himself and Nassif from January 2021.

“Hi, Jean. Thanks for lunch and the chat today. I’ve made a few calls. Short summary. Mascot. Got a call with the department on Monday to advance progression to the panel. 189. Spoke to my PDU [planning delivery unit in the department] contact. We are meeting on Monday for me to show her and raise our concerns. Garthowen. I will have an approach plan for this week.”

Lying to Jean

Charles Perrottet told Icac that he often lied to Nassif about political manoeuvring he was doing on his behalf and that he exaggerated his role.

“I gave him updates on the ascendancy of the right. It was one of the things I used to get him to pay his bills to Beckington,” Charles said.

Charles was shown text messages that he had sent to Nassif’s lawyer, Sharangan Maheswaran, after a dinner he had had with Nassif at Nobu in Melbourne in May 2021.

The text appeared to link achievement of political outcomes that Nassif sought, namely the removal of Chandler, and ending the career of Baulkham Hills MP, David Elliott’, with payments for progress on two projects, 189 Macquarie Street, Parramatta and Garthowen.

Dwyer asked: “So what you’re saying there is that you suggested to Sharangan Maheswaran that you can deal with Chandler and Elliot if you get money from 189 and Garthowen, those two developments, correct?”

“No,” said Charles Perrottet.

“I was making a lot of this stuff up.”

Whisper campaigns and blackmail attempts

Charles Perrottet agreed that he had been given a video by Maheswaran or Nassif of the building commissioner speaking at a building site where he said he had a list of dodgy certifiers that he would provide to the banks.

Charles told Icac he thought this might amount to third-line forcing – coercing a business to deal with a particular supplier – and suggested to either Nassif or Sharangan that they take it to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, which regulates anticompetitive conduct.

In 2022 a video circulated in NSW parliament and was used to undermine the building commissioner to the fair trading minister, Eleni Petinos.

It was eventually reported by The Australian in July 2022 with a suggestion that Chandler had misled a parliamentary committee.

Chandler is not accused of wrongdoing by Icac, and is not under investigation. He told Icac last week that he was subjected to a campaign to undermine him in his role.

Charles was also asked about Nassif’s concerns about receiving what appeared to be an extortion attempt he had received via an anonymous email. It suggested the payment of $5m to a lawyers account would get the building commissioner off Nassif’s back.

Charles said he had suggested it should be taken to police, but he had done nothing himself.