For almost 10 weeks, the state’s corruption watchdog painstakingly extracted evidence from backroom political operatives – and even fugitive developer Jean Nassif from his Beirut bedroom – but there was one central figure who remained the ghost of Operation Rosny.
asserted
who → extract → Rosny
One-time Liberal powerbroker Christian Ellis, who skilfully evaded a parliamentary inquiry by hiding in the forests south of Sydney in 2023, again managed to dodge efforts to bring him to give public evidence about his role in an alleged illegal donations scheme to the Independent Commission Against Corruption.
asserted
who → evade → Corruption
Final exhibits tendered to the inquiry, which wrapped last week, reveal the ways the ICAC bent over backwards to secure the evidence of Ellis, who moved to the UK earlier this year and has no plans to return to Australia.
asserted
who → tender → Australia
The ICAC wrote to Ellis and his lawyer several times, offering to sit into the evening to allow for the time difference, offered a break every two hours and proposed that he dial in from his home so as not to disrupt family commitments, the documents reveal.
asserted
documents → write → commitments
Still, that wasn’t enough to convince Ellis.
asserted
that → convince → Ellis
The ICAC is now assessing the evidence given by his former political allies and clients before it decides if any of Ellis’s conduct amounts to corruption.
asserted
any → assess → corruption
The founding member of the Reformers right-wing sub-faction of the Liberal party wasn’t staying completely in the dark.
asserted
member → found → dark
As the ICAC heard, his mate and former business partner Jeremy Greenwood was in regular contact, and had even flown to meet Ellis in London in June, just weeks before the public inquiry was announced.
asserted
inquiry → hear → June
Ellis wanted to cooperate with the public inquiry, he told Greenwood over the phone, but didn’t know how.
asserted
he → want → phone
Greenwood relayed this to the ICAC during his own questioning.
asserted
Greenwood → relay → questioning
“If Mr Ellis is listening, the commission waits for his response,” assistant commissioner Fabian Gleeson, SC, said.
asserted
Gleeson → listen → response
In a letter to Ellis the next day, an ICAC investigator reiterated the arrangements they could make to facilitate his evidence.
uncertain
they → reiterate → evidence
Documents also revealed that Ellis’ lawyer, Simon Diab, had offered participation in the public inquiry only by responding to written questions.
asserted
lawyer → reveal → questions
The ICAC refused.
asserted
ICAC → refuse → ?
The documents also showed that the ICAC refused Diab’s application to represent Ellis at the public inquiry, although the reasons given for this refusal were redacted.
asserted
reasons → show → refusal
Ellis gave evidence in a private hearing in 2024, although only a short excerpt was tendered to the public inquiry, and has remained silent since the public hearings began.
asserted
hearings → give → inquiry
When Liberal MP Ray Williams stood up in parliament and made extraordinary claims about alleged corruption in his own party in 2022, Ellis was hard at work for his right wing factional group the Reformers.
uncertain
Ellis → stand → group
He was waging factional warfare in Deniliquin in the federal seat of Farrer, not to unseat a rival political party, but to oust moderate Liberal Sussan Ley and instead seize the branch for the right faction.
asserted
He → wag → faction
And he was having some success.
asserted
he → have → success
“Word from the south,” fellow Reformer and once Catholic Schools NSW staffer Robert Assaf texted some factional friends.
asserted
Assaf → texte → friends
“Tobias Lehmann has just lost the presidency of Farrer FEC.
asserted
Lehmann → lose → FEC
Meanwhile, the Reformers were holding events with conservative titans such as Alan Jones, and working to recruit new religious conservatives to the Liberal Party, especially in the Hills Shire.
At the same time, Ellis and Greenwood were being paid large cheques from Jean Nassif’s Toplace, allegedly in partnership with Charles Perrottet in exchange for political outcomes.
uncertain
Ellis → hold → outcomes
In 2021, Ellis attended a Liberal fundraiser, headlined by then-treasurer Dominic Perrottet and Robyn Preston, with a friend in tow – Toplace’s lawyer and one-time Labor Strathfield councillor Sharangan Maheswaran, another star witness in the ICAC inquiry.
asserted
Ellis → attend → inquiry
Money was also coming in from Catholic Schools NSW, via an allegedly sham contract approved by the CEO, fellow right-wing Liberal Dallas McInerney, to Ellis’s government relations firm Beckington, allegedly a way to help fund the work of the Reformers.
uncertain
Money → come → Reformers
McInerney has denied wrongdoing.
asserted
McInerney → deny → wrongdoing
Despite his powerful political connections and months of scheming to stack branches in Farrer, Ellis would fail in his mission to dump Ley, losing a vote during a November 2022 branch meeting after Ley made a secret 11-hour drive from Canberra to the regional NSW town of Finley for the vote.
asserted
Ley → scheme → vote
Ley walked up to Ellis, looked him in the eyes and said: “You f---ed with the wrong person, you gutless prick.”
asserted
You → walk → person
Another thorn in Ellis’s side came a month later when the NSW Parliament launched an inquiry into the allegations raised in Williams’s speech, which specifically named Ellis.
asserted
which → come → Ellis
He was called as a witness, along with Greenwood, and Perrottet brothers Jean-Claude and Charles.
asserted
He → call → Greenwood
Ellis went into hiding, managing to dodge process servers hired by the parliament to track him down.
asserted
Ellis → go → him
His wife at one point answered the door to their rural Deniliquin home and told the agent she didn’t know her husband’s movements.
asserted
she → answer → movements
“The agent noted the female person to appear nervous and evasive,” a report given to the inquiry said.
asserted
report → note → inquiry
Rumours were flying around Deniliquin.
asserted
Rumours → fly → Deniliquin
Long-time Liberal branch member Shirlee Burge told the parliamentary inquiry she believed Ellis was living on a property backing onto dense forest where “people could disappear in there forever”.
uncertain
people → tell → forest
There had been sightings of vehicles going into the forest, she said.
asserted
she → go → forest
Burge said she believes she saw Ellis driving around wearing a black, full-face ski mask.
asserted
Ellis → say → mask
Ellis managed to evade a statewide manhunt despite the best efforts of the parliamentary inquiry, and after the Liberal Party lost the 2023 state election, Ellis and the Reformers went quiet.
asserted
Ellis → manage → election
In August 2023 Ellis was expelled from the party for bringing it into disrepute.
asserted
Ellis → expel → disrepute
While Operation Rosny never heard from Ellis in the public hearings, his connections to powerful people became clear through evidence before the ICAC.
asserted
connections → hear → ICAC
McInerney, for example, spoke at a Reformers event and agreed to sign-on Catholic Schools NSW as Beckington’s first client.
asserted
McInerney → speak → client
…and 5 more, not listed.
The Aporia
