Kellie Sloane says \u2018leaking a report is never good\u2019 as Reformer Jean-Claude Perrottet tells inquiry group signed up members to \u2018dodgy\u2019 branches<\/p>\n
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The younger brother of a former Liberal premier has told an anti-corruption watchdog that a group of young conservative power breakers, now under investigation for soliciting illegal donations, recruited members to \u201cdodgy\u201d branches controlled by rival factions.<\/p>\n
Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of ex-New South Wales premier Dominic Perrottet, appeared before the Independent Commission Against Corruption\u2019s (Icac) on Wednesday.<\/p>\n
Icac is investigating whether members of the so-called Reformers, including Jean-Claude Perrottet, solicited or accepted illegal donations for the recruitment or renewal of members to the Liberal party. That practice, known as branch stacking, is not illegal.<\/p>\n
The inquiry has heard that Jean-Claude Perrottet, 29, was among the Reformers who avoided summons to appear at a parliamentary inquiry which preceded Icac\u2019s Operation Rosny.<\/p>\n
The NSW shadow attorney general, Damien Tudehope, claimed on Tuesday that he had discussed with Dominic Perrottet that Jean-Claude was in Fiji during the 2023 inquiry.<\/p>\n
The state Liberal leader, Kellie Sloane, on Wednesday said she would reserve any decision about Tudehope\u2019s future until the end of Icac\u2019s inquiry after he admitted to leaking a confidential draft report from the parliamentary inquiry to another Reformer, Jeremy Greenwood, in February 2023.<\/p>\n
\u201cDamien cooperated with the inquiry,\u201d Sloane told reporters.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe was thanked by the inquiry and he was released from his summons. The leaking of a report is never good. It\u2019s a standard that I don\u2019t accept.<\/p>\n
\u201cI spoke to Damien about that \u2026 but the status remains that Damien is not in my shadow cabinet for the remainder of these hearings \u2013 and that\u2019s appropriate.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sloane said she would \u201cmake a consideration once Icac proceedings have finalised\u201d.<\/p>\n
The Liberal\u2019s leader in the upper house, Tudehope, who is not named in the Icac allegations, has stepped aside from his shadow cabinet roles during the inquiry.<\/p>\n
Tudehope, who employed Jean-Claude Perrottet as a staffer in his electoral and ministerial offices in 2018 and 2019, told Icac on Tuesday that Jean-Claude had a \u201ctalent\u201d for recruiting and renewing members to the party, which he said was essential for any Liberal member looking to keep hold of their seat at preselection.<\/p>\n