Right-wing Liberal powerbroker Charles Perrottet has defended his wife Anita before the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Tuesday, insisting she did not lie to the inquiry — despite the couple giving starkly contradictory accounts of why her company received $150,000 in payments linked to property developer Jean Nassif and his construction company Toplace.
Conflicting stories over the Macquarie Consulting payments
Perrottet told the commission that Anita's company, Macquarie Consulting, received the money as remuneration for advice he had provided to his friend Jeremy Greenwood, who worked with Nassif and Toplace. Perrottet said he was happy to help Greenwood and would offer advice and make introductions to assist with Toplace developments, describing it simply as what friends do.
However, Anita Perrottet told the commission a different story entirely. Her evidence was that Charles performed no work whatsoever for Macquarie Consulting, and that her only client was Greenwood's company Beckington, which subcontracted her to provide strategic advice relating to Greyhound Racing NSW. She stated that neither she nor her husband ever did any work to benefit Toplace, and that all money received from Beckington was solely for her greyhound racing work.
Counsel assisting, Dr Peggy Dwyer SC, pressed Perrottet on why this arrangement with Beckington had never been mentioned in previous private hearings with the commission, and why none of the other parties involved — including Anita — had ever raised it before.
'Did your wife lie to the commission?'
Dwyer put the question directly: "Did your wife then lie to the commission last week about the amount that was, in fact, covering your advice?"
"No, as I said to you, I'm not sure how much I disclosed to Anita," Perrottet replied.
When Dwyer suggested he may have allowed Anita to believe she was genuinely charging for the work when it was actually his advice being remunerated, Perrottet denied any intention to mislead her. "She was doing a lot of good work," he said.
Perrottet also told the commission he and Anita had been instructed by Greenwood's business partner Christian Ellis to hold off sending invoices because Beckington was experiencing cash-flow problems, and that they sent the invoices together at Ellis's direction.
Perrottet dismisses $150,000 as not 'significant'
When challenged about the scale of the payments — $150,000 for approximately 16 hours of work per week over a year — Perrottet was unapologetic, telling the commission he did not consider it a significant sum.
"Value is in the eye of the beholder. If there were value, if Jeremy had seen value in the work, he was paying accordingly," he said.
Dwyer pushed back, questioning whether part-time, flexible work over 12 months could reasonably be described as not significant at that rate. Perrottet maintained his position.
The commission had previously heard that Perrottet was remunerated for advice given to Greenwood via Macquarie Consulting, but Perrottet denied that financial gain was his motivation. "That's what friends do," he told the inquiry.
What the inquiry is examining
The ICAC hearing is scrutinising the financial arrangements between Perrottet, his wife's consulting business, and figures connected to the Toplace development group. The conflicting testimony from Charles and Anita Perrottet has placed the commission in the position of weighing two irreconcilable accounts of the same payments — a central problem the inquiry must now resolve.
The proceedings underline the complex questions that can arise when business arrangements intersect with political networks, and how disputed financial dealings can unravel even when all parties insist on their version of events. If you have information relevant to matters of public interest, you can share your story with our team.
