Ex-Parramatta CEO Gail Connolly Makes Concessions to Corruption Watchdog

After initially denying any wrongdoing, former Parramatta council CEO Gail Connolly has ended up making three key concessions to the corruption watchdog over days of questioning.

Ms Connolly was questioned the longest out of all 17 witnesses summonsed by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) over a six-week period to investigate the alleged corruption at City of Parramatta Council.

She described the public hearings into her alleged corruption as "the Spanish Inquisition."

Her testimony was central to uncovering the depth and breadth of personal connections she shared with a network of women calling themselves the "Pink Ladies" or "Pink Ops".

Her closest allies included senior executives Roxanne Thornton and Angela Jones-Blayney.

All three women are accused of corruption by subverting recruitment at the council to favour friends, and in one case, a family member.

Ms Connolly was questioned over seven days of evidence and denied most allegations put to her.

It was alleged Ms Connolly interfered in hiring processes to help her friends and fellow "Pink Ladies" secure jobs, orchestrated secret deals worth $1.3 million of taxpayer money to remove staff she wanted gone, and spied on employees' emails and an elected councillor.

Ms Connolly had an answer for almost everything.

Evidence showed Ms Jones-Blayney received interview questions in advance that were sent by Ms Connolly to the Office of the Lord Mayor and CEO group manager Ms Thornton, who then forwarded them to city engagement and experience executive director Ms Jones-Blayney.

Ms Connolly, who sat on the interview panel, told the commission on Tuesday she understood the questions were being distributed to all candidates.

That was not the case.

After being pressed by counsel assisting Joanna Davidson SC she accepted "the interview process was fundamentally undermined by the provision of that material by a panel member to one interviewee".

Claims of hiring family and surveilling staff

Ms Connolly was also questioned about the hiring of her niece, Leah Senkowski, who worked at paint-and-sip company Pinot and Picasso before being recruited to the council.

She maintained she was not involved in her niece's hiring process, except for asking her if she wanted a job at council, editing her CV and forwarding it to the council's chief people and culture officer Brendan Clifton.

Ms Senkowski ended up getting a job at the council as a secretariat support officer.

Ms Connolly was also asked about approving the surveillance of council employees; an issue explored with multiple witnesses, including some who were subjected to the surveillance.

She told the commission the surveillance included independent councillor Kellie Darley.

"She [Cr Darley] was frequently the subject of searches and complaints but that's very different from conducting unauthorised searches or random searches of email platforms or phone records," she said.

Justin Mulder was the council's chief of staff who left via a deed of release and ran for council elections on Cr Darley's ticket in 2024, but did not win a seat.

He was the subject of an email sent by Ms Connolly under a false name to the media accusing him of being involved in time sheet fraud.

Mr Mulder's lawyer Callan O'Neill put to Ms Connolly at the inquiry that her email was an attempt to remove Mr Mulder from a position of influence over the lord mayor.

Ms Connolly rejected that proposition.

She also conceded text messages sent to Ms Jones-Blayney were inappropriate.

Evidence showed Ms Connolly divulged details of another employee's application to the same position Ms Jones-Blayney was a candidate for.

"I shouldn't have said that," Ms Connolly said of their conversation.

Council lawyer accuses ex-CEO of 'rubbish' answer

The last to cross-examine Ms Connolly was City of Parramatta Council's lawyer Arthur Moses SC.

He started by asking Ms Connolly if she had heard of the saying: "Hypocrisy is the audacity to preach integrity from a den of corruption."

She had not.

When Mr Moses asked whether she was worried that "after a change in the council, you'd be sacked", Ms Connolly said "there was a high likelihood" of that after the election.

He accused her of lying when it suited her, deliberately deceiving and misleading the commission and on one occasion, giving a "rubbish" answer.

Ms Connolly has consistently rejected accusations she lied to the council, but Mr Moses's questioning on the anonymous email she sent eventually led to Ms Connolly saying she had lied to the lord mayor.

Mr Moses asked: "You lied to the Lord Mayor of the Council, correct?"

After a long pause, Ms Connolly said: "That's correct."

Mr Moses also accused Ms Connolly of hiding the deeds of release of council employees from elected councillors because she thought she was above them.

Ms Connolly rejected that proposition too, and said she had legal advice that compelled her not to share them with councillors.

'It's the Spanish Inquisition'

The truthfulness of Ms Connolly's testimony was a key feature of the inquiry.

At one point, Mr Moses asked her: "Do you understand the ridiculousness of the evidence you've just given?"

On the final day of her testimony, when asked whether she understood that "this is not a Monty Python sketch", Ms Connolly quickly responded: "It's the Spanish Inquisition."

He also accused her of acting dishonestly, engaging in corrupt conduct and forging the signature of Ms Thornton as a witness to Ms Connolly's contract with the council.

Ms Connolly had previously testified Ms Thronton was not in the room with her and had given her permission over a FaceTime call to write her wet ink signature.

Ms Thornton's evidence was that she only gave Ms Connolly permission to use her e-signature.

Mr Moses asked Ms Connolly to accept her interaction with City of Parramatta Council from beginning to end was mired with corruption.

"The deception began with you signing that contract with the council and has now continued not only through your employment but now into the witness box," he said.

Ms Connolly said she did not accept that.

The ICAC has taken a few weeks break to consider the thousands of pages of evidence it has gathered.