LEGISLATIVE COUNCIL
Portfolio Committee No. 7 – Planning and Environment
Report 18
March 2023
Allegations of impropriety against agents of the Hills Shire Council and property developers in the region
Ordered to be printed 2 March 2023 according to Standing Order 238
At 4:17:38pm a 63.4MB, 478 page report was created in PDF form as Report no 18 - PC 7 - Hills Shire Council inquiry.pdf and subsequently published on the Parliament of New South Wales website at:
The full report between Pages 170 to 477 contains documentation supporting allegations of impropriety – some of it internal documents & correspondence generated by Liberals NSW (the state division of the Liberal Party of Australia), various state party members and/or NSW Liberal Party members of parliament. Included are various members of the Perrottet family. It makes for interesting reading.
Six witnesses who declined to attend the parliamentary inquiry are: NSW Liberal Party member Christian Ellis, The Hills Shire Cr. Virginia Ellis, NSW Liberal Party member Charles Perrottet, NSW Liberal Party member Jean-Claude Perrottet, NSW Liberal Party member & lobbyist Dylan Whitelaw and, property developer Jean Nassif.
Below is set out the text of the Committee Chair’s foreword to the report, the six official findings of the Inquiry and the eight formal recommendations.
Chair’s foreword
This has been an extraordinary inquiry – not so much for the information that has come to light – but for the gaping hole in evidence left by key witnesses who have gone to great lengths to avoid scrutiny.
The allegations that sparked this inquiry were made by an elected member of Parliament who is also a member of the Liberal Party. They were serious allegations of collusion between members of the Liberal party and a developer to replace elected members of The Hills Shire Council with new councillors who would be more amenable to that developer's interests. Revelations about branch-stacking activities in The Hills area that emerged in this inquiry are a related and additional source of concern. When branch stacking activities are linked to collusion with developers, they are not merely a distortion of democratic processes, they could amount to serious corruption.
The only way this committee could shed some light on these allegations is for those involved to come forward and give their account. Their co-ordinated, deliberate and serious efforts to evade scrutiny inevitably leave the perception that there is something to hide.
The lack of cooperation from key witnesses in this inquiry means that serious allegations of corruption by members of the Liberal Party in the Hills Shire have gone unanswered. Some have tried to justify their absence by questioning the integrity of this committee. The contempt shown for our role as an Upper House committee raises serious questions about the operation of the Liberal Party in NSW, and whether those seeking political power at local or state government level understand the principles of transparency and accountability that are central to a healthy democracy.
This inquiry has raised questions that are too serious to leave unanswered simply because this Parliament has run its course. For this reason, the committee has recommended that a new inquiry into these matters be established in the next Parliament. Essential to that will be the involvement of Christian Ellis, Charles Perrottet, Jean-Claude Perrottet and Jean Nassif.
The committee has also recommended that the influence of property developers and others in political, legal and democratic processes in the Hills Shire region be referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption for investigation. This is based on the evidence received from one individual in this inquiry, who gave a frank account of how some members of the Liberal Party sought a donation from him to unseat a sitting federal member.
Faced with the non-cooperation of key witnesses, this committee has taken some unusual, and in some cases unprecedented, procedural steps. The use of private process servers in the effort to serve a summons to key witnesses was one of these. While many attempts were made to serve key witnesses with a summons to attend and give evidence, albeit unsuccessfully, the committee considered it was an appropriate course of action, owing mainly to the clear lack of co-operation and difficulty experienced when liaising with witnesses. We thank the process servers for assisting the committee in what can only be described as extraordinary circumstances.
To address these difficulties better in the future, the committee has recommended that the Legislative Council refer an inquiry into the Parliamentary Evidence Act 1901 to the Privileges Committee, with a view to identifying amendments to ensure it is fit for purpose and modernised, including in relation to the summonsing of witnesses.
Finally, I would like to comment on the unauthorised disclosure of parts of the Chair's draft report. The disclosure was revealed on the day this report was tabled, literally hours before the expiration of the Legislative Assembly, which meant that the committee was unable to take the steps usually followed by committees to investigate and address such disclosures.
Unauthorised disclosure of committee information, such as a draft report, threatens the integrity of the committee system by reducing trust amongst members, as well as between the Parliament and the public. Such disclosures also demonstrate disrespect for the secretariat who make every effort to protect the confidentiality of committee proceedings. I urge the person responsible for this breach of the standing orders to reflect on the seriousness of their actions.
On behalf of the committee I sincerely thank those witnesses who did come forward and give evidence
– even reluctantly – to this inquiry. Each witness had something important to contribute, and has shed some light on the issues in question. I also thank my fellow committee members, and acknowledge that this has not been an easy inquiry by any measure, especially given all the pressures associated with the end of a parliamentary term. Finally, I thank the secretariat for their extraordinary hard work and professionalism, and all of the other parliamentary staff who have assisted to support the important work of this committee.
Ms Sue Higginson MLC
Committee Chair
Findings
Finding 1 21
That, based on evidence to the committee, a meeting took place at which Christian Ellis and Jean-Claude Perrottet asked a businessman to contribute $50,000 to an operation to unseat Alex Hawke, federal member for Mitchell.
Finding 2 21
That the finding of this committee about a request for $50,000, combined with the behaviour of witnesses called to this inquiry, add weight to the allegations by Government MP Ray Williams in the parliament that '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'.
Finding 3 22
That the following witnesses for whom summons were issued to assist the inquiry engaged in serious and deliberate attempts to evade service: Christian Ellis, Virginia Ellis and Jean-Claude Perrottet.
Finding 4 22
That the following witnesses for whom summons were issued to assist the inquiry engaged in serious and deliberate attempts to avoid giving evidence to the inquiry, noting they were out of the jurisdiction: Charles Perrottet and Jean Nassif.
Finding 5 22
That the following witnesses for whom summons were issued to assist the inquiry engaged in deliberate attempts to avoid giving evidence to the inquiry: Jeff Egan, Jeremy Greenwood and Dylan Whitelaw.
Finding 6 23
That a New South Wales parliamentary committee has never been faced with such serious, deliberate and co-ordinated attempts by witnesses to evade service of a summons.
Recommendations
Recommendation 1 20
That the Legislative Council establish a new inquiry into allegations of impropriety against agents of The Hills Shire Council and property developers in the region in the 58th Parliament, referring all evidence from this inquiry to the relevant committee.
Recommendation 2 21
That any future inquiry should call Christian Ellis and Jean-Claude Perrottet to give evidence on the matters referred to in Finding 1.
Recommendation 3 21
That any future inquiry should call Christian Ellis, Charles Perrottet and Jean Nassif to give evidence on the matters referred to in Finding 2.
Recommendation 4 21
That Portfolio Committee No. 7 – Planning and Environment refer the influence of property
developers and others in legal, political and democratic processes in The Hills Shire region to the Independent Commission Against Corruption, along with this report and committee transcripts of evidence.
Recommendation 5 23
That, at the beginning of the 58th Parliament, the NSW Legislative Council:
refer an inquiry into the Parliamentary Evidence Act 1901 to the Privileges Committee, with a view to identifying amendments to ensure it is fit for purpose and modernised, including in relation to the summonsing of witnesses; and
send a message to the NSW Legislative Assembly requesting that that House refer the same inquiry to its Standing Committee on Parliamentary Privilege and Ethics.
Recommendation 6 24
That Legislative Council committees consider the use of professional process servers to serve a summons on a witness in extraordinary circumstances where the witness has demonstrated that they are not co-operating with the committee, and that this matter be considered by any future inquiry by the Privileges Committee into the operation of the Parliamentary Evidence Act 1901 (as referred to in Recommendation 5).
Recommendation 7 24
That the NSW Legislative Council refer the matter of anonymously authored documents being tabled under parliamentary privilege to the Privileges Committee for inquiry and report.
Recommendation 8 24
That the Minister for Local Government undertake an investigation into The Hills Shire Council and consider what steps should be taken, including whether the Council should be put into administration.
A little background.....
