On January 8, 2022, four newly elected councillors gathered at the Crossways Hotel in Strathfield to divide the spoils of political war.
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councillors → elect → war
Little did they know the meeting would trigger one of the grubbiest feuds in NSW politics, and feature in a major corruption inquiry four years later.
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meeting → know → inquiry
Over lunch and drinks that Saturday, real estate agent Matthew Blackmore, kidney transplant recipient Karen Pensabene, migration agent Sandy Reddy and lawyer-cum-development executive Sharangan Maheswaran struck a handshake deal over who would become the mayor of Strathfield Council following elections the month prior.
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who → strike → elections
The agreement was for Blackmore, an independent, to take the job for at least one year and then hand it over to Pensabene, a Labor councillor.
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Blackmore → take → Pensabene
Everyone seemed happy.
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Everyone → seem → ?
The only problem was that Blackmore ended up liking the job a little too much.
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Blackmore → end → job
With a big mortgage and rising interest rates, he also liked the $46,010 allowance that topped up his meagre annual councillor fee of $21,000.
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that → rise → 21,000
When the time came to hand over the mayoral chains, Blackmore wavered, and all hell broke loose.
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hell → come → chains
At the Artisaint cafe in Burwood in early 2023, Blackmore told Pensabene and Maheswaran that he wanted to stay on.
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he → tell → Pensabene
Anticipating he might say that, the Labor duo helpfully produced a resignation letter written in Blackmore’s name, and told him to sign it.
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duo → anticipate → it
Maheswaran allegedly told the mayor: “I’ve got a reputation in the party that if I don’t like someone, they don’t get away with crossing me.
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they → tell → me
It would take me about six weeks to take you down.”
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It → take → you
Blackmore told Maheswaran to “get f---ed”.
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Blackmore → tell → Maheswaran
Within days, the campaign to assassinate Blackmore politically was in full swing.
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campaign → assassinate → swing
He fielded sudden media inquiries about his relationship with the council’s controversial former mayor, Antoine Doueihi.
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He → field → mayor
He also received a text message from Pensabene in which she said Maheswaran was preparing to print 20,000 scurrilous flyers.
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Maheswaran → receive → flyers
“I tried to stop him but he is angry!” Pensabene wrote.
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Pensabene → try → him
Two days later, the highly stressed Blackmore found several yellow and white flyers stuck under the windscreen wipers of his car in Homebush.
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Blackmore → stress → Homebush
The document was a good old-fashioned political “shit sheet” full of potentially damaging information about Blackmore, including his past legal difficulties.
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document → include → difficulties
“And this isn’t even the worst of it – more to come,” the flyer promised.
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flyer → come → it
That same weekend, Maheswaran messaged Blackmore with a warning: “If I can’t convince you, I can’t convince you.
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I → message → you
I only thought to reach out before things got more serious.”
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things → think → ?
Blackmore fought back tears when recounting the incident to the Independent Commission Against Corruption this week.
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Blackmore → fight → Corruption
He also broke down when discussing a meeting in the council chambers at 5.15pm on the same day he found the shit sheet.
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he → break → sheet
At that meeting, mayoral aspirant Pensabene and her enthusiastic backer Maheswaran again told Blackmore he had to honour his agreement to quit as soon as possible.
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he → tell → agreement
Maheswaran then made a bombshell revelation: he’d had “operatives” following the mayor the past five months.
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he → make → mayor
“I’ve got recordings of you and transcripts,” he said.
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he → get → you
He read out at least one transcript of a private conversation that Blackmore instantly recognised.
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Blackmore → read → that
The mayor was told that his enemies knew he and his wife had bought a new home outside the local government area, which could be a bad look with constituents.
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which → tell → constituents
Maheswaran also said he knew that the mayoral Toyota RAV4 had been used to drive Blackmore’s family to the NSW South Coast town of Gerringong for a holiday.
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RAV4 → say → holiday
“All of this will go away when you resign from the mayoralty.
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you → go → mayoralty
It’ll all stop,” Maheswaran allegedly said.
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Maheswaran → stop → ?
Blackmore relented and agreed to step down on March 7, which he scribbled on a piece of paper.
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he → relent → paper
Pensabene took over.
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Pensabene → take → ?
Remarkably, Blackmore voted for her to become mayor despite everything that had gone down.
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that → vote → everything
Because he had sought and received a guarantee that she would get Maheswaran to back off.
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Maheswaran → seek → guarantee
The alleged blackmail plot illustrates how the ICAC’s Operation Rosny probe, which is nearing its conclusion after eight weeks of explosive public hearings, is much more than an investigation into dodgy donations or breaches of electoral laws.
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which → illustrate → laws
It is a reminder that democracy in NSW is still at risk of being bought, sold, and weaponised.
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democracy → buy → risk
Under the laws pledged by the then-premier Dominic Perrottet, all third-party and in-house lobbyists would be required to register with a new lobbying regulator and all MPs – not just ministers – would need to disclose their diaries each month.
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MPs → pledge → diaries
Senior political advisers would also be precluded from engaging in any lobbying relating to any matter that they had official dealings with in their last 12 months in a government office.
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they → preclude → office
…and 59 more, not listed.
The Aporia
