Pubs and pokies multi-millionaire Michael O’Hara took up using encrypted messaging app Signal in his dealings with the “NSW Reformers”, who he was illegally paying to stack NSW Liberal branches to push his “conservative agenda”.
O’Hara, 83, has told the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption his frustration with the “woke agenda” of then Liberal NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet had led him into the scheme, run by one of the Premier’s brothers.
The inquiry heard Jean-Claude Perrottet boasted of having “taken 15 branches from the left” under the scheme.
O’Hara admitted giving at least $165,000 to fund the “NSW Reformers”, paid to at least four different entities, connected to Liberal Party operatives and scheme operators Jean-Claude Perrottet, Robert Assaf and Christian Ellis.
The funds were to help hard-right NSW Reformers “target the branches” to have seats across Sydney stacked in favour of the Liberal right.
None of the $165,000 was declared to the electoral commission and regardless, O’Hara was a banned political donor because of his ties to property development.
O’Hara gave $40,000 to Robert Assaf; agreed he had given $45,000 to Christian Ellis “under the guise of strategic financial advice”; and agreed he had given $80,000 to Jean-Claude Perrottet falsely labelled as being for “consultancy”.
O’Hara said the payments were for “building up the branches”.
“Building up the numbers, or building up the branches, targeting the branches they could win,” he told the inquiry.
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Michael O’Hara fronts the first day of ICAC hearings yesterday. Source: The Klaxon
The inquiry was read a message from O’Hara in which he complained of then NSW Climate Change Minister Matt Kean.
O’Hara said that then premier Perrottet “either agrees with the woke crap Matt Kean was going on with” or “has lost…his spine”.
When asked about the exchange, O’Hara responded: “Yeah, well Dominic came in with great bluster and espousing the right ideals but he kept bending sadly”.
O’Hara was presented with a text exchange between himself and Jean-Claude Perrottet, which showed O’Hara was on encrypted messaging app Signal.
The exchange suggested O’Hara had begun using the app that day, on September 7 2021.
The NSW Reformers: allegations of serious misconduct spanning years. Source: The Klaxon
Asked why he, then in his “late 70’s” had started using the encrypted app, O’Hara said he could not recall.
“I have no idea, I was a very busy person,” he said.
He said he didn’t know if it was Jean-Claude Perrottet who had introduced him to the app, but he knew it was used for secretive communication.
“It’s an encrypted app so the messages disappear,” Mr O’Hara told the inquiry.
“I knew it was secretive or something yes”.
Payments O’Hara made to NSW Reformers included via an entity called Robert Assaf Consulting, via “Jean Claude Perrottet Marketing Business”, and via a corporate entity called Beckington, connected to Christian Ellis.
O’Hara agreed he received ongoing “updates” from the men as to the progress of the NSW Reformers scheme.
Under cross examination, O’Hara said he was not aware of specifics of the operation and had not been told the name of any individual NSW Reformers had recruited.
When asked whether he had been told of the “mechanics”, O’Hara responded “I wasn’t party to the detail”.
“There was no detail, as I said I put trust in them and I left it to them, the detail I’m not aware of,” O’Hara said.
The hearings continue.
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Anthony Klan
Editor, The Klaxon
