ICAC Week 3: 2023 'filthy money' text aired in NSW Liberal probe

For legal and RegTech professionals, Operation Rosny is a live case study in how digital evidence is used to establish intent in political donation and branch-stacking investigations. Jeremy Greenwood's cross-examination by Peggy Dwyer shows how a single 2023 text exchange and a reply to 'not put that in writing' can become pivotal when assessing credibility and potential corrupt conduct. The unfolding inquiry will test the boundaries of NSW electoral funding law and ICAC's coercive information-gathering powers.

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) has entered its third week of public hearings in Operation Rosny, an investigation into allegations of illicit political donations and branch-stacking spearheaded by the so-called Reformers, a conservative Christian faction within the NSW Liberal Party. The week's opening witness, Jeremy Greenwood, a lobbyist and former staffer to Nationals leader Matt Canavan, sought to distance himself from the faction, claiming most of his engagement was casual and social. Yet as the hearing unfolded, contemporaneous text messages and emails between Greenwood and Reformers figure Jean-Claude Perrottet appeared to contradict that account, placing Greenwood at the centre of alleged covert funding arrangements.

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Dwyer put it to Greenwood that he had funnelled money from Catholic Schools NSW and elsewhere through his advisory firm, Beckington, to covertly fund the Reformers' aim of electing more conservative politicians to parliament.

The most damaging exhibit aired during the week was a 2023 text exchange in which Greenwood messaged Jean-Claude Perrottet: "Hey, so you know I'm good to you and help you and give you your filthy schools money ... " Perrottet replied: "Don't put that in writing." Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer pressed Greenwood on the meaning of "filthy schools money". He dismissed it as a stupid joke, but Dwyer was unimpressed, telling him bluntly: "I'm not getting it, Mr Greenwood." The exchange matters because it suggests Perrottet understood the activity to be sensitive enough that it should not be memorialised in writing, a classic evidentiary signal in corruption inquiries.

Dwyer put it to Greenwood that he had funnelled money from Catholic Schools NSW and elsewhere through his advisory firm, Beckington, to covertly fund the Reformers' aim of electing more conservative politicians to parliament. Greenwood spent much of the week claiming he could not recall details of the alleged plot, even as he was shown messages and emails that appeared to reference it. Jean-Claude Perrottet is the younger brother of former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet and is alleged to be the Reformers' most zealous recruiter of new members to branches where the faction sought influence. Those relationships give the inquiry both legal and political gravity.

The allegations fall squarely within ICAC's statutory remit to investigate corrupt conduct in public administration. Branch-stacking and undisclosed political donations, if proven, can breach NSW electoral funding and party registration laws, and may also raise questions about whether public school funds were improperly diverted for partisan political purposes. The inquiry is not a criminal trial, but ICAC findings of serious corrupt conduct can be referred to the Director of Public Prosecutions and can trigger by-elections, internal party purges, and legislative reform. The public airing of private messages also carries reputational and regulatory risk for any corporate or institutional entities whose money is traced through the donation chain.