Did Public Money for Catholic Schools End Up Funding Liberal Party Politics?

The head of Catholic Schools NSW, Dallas McInerney, told a corruption watchdog on 14 August 2026 that payments his organisation made to a lobbying firm were not a fake arrangement to secretly fund Liberal Party political activity. His testimony directly challenges the main allegation being investigated.

The investigation, called Operation Rosny, is being run by the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, or ICAC. ICAC is a government body that looks into corruption involving public officials and public money. The inquiry is examining whether McInerney arranged illegal donations from Catholic Schools NSW to support "branch stacking" by a group called the Reformers. Branch stacking is a practice where people are signed up to join a political party to influence internal votes, often without any real intention of participating. The Reformers are a Christian conservative group within the NSW Liberal Party. The public inquiry opened on 27 July 2026, and ICAC is investigating whether McInerney, Christian Ellis, Jeremy Greenwood, and Robert Assaf broke electoral funding laws (ICAC).

The amounts involved are large. Catholic Schools NSW paid $130,900 to Beckington, a lobbying company run by Ellis and Greenwood, between August 2019 and August 2021, through invoices for consulting services. After that ended, Greenwood's company JPG Advisory received $135,000 from Catholic Schools NSW between December 2021 and December 2023. ICAC heard evidence that up to $265,000 in Catholic Schools NSW funding may have been redirected to the Reformers (The Educator).

The commission also heard that two Reformers, Robert Assaf and Dylan Whitelaw, spent work hours on factional political activity while employed at Catholic Schools NSW. In February 2021 messages shown to the inquiry, Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, wrote to Assaf: "Ellis and I caught up with Dallas in Bowral to discuss money, had a long convo." The lawyer helping the inquiry, Juliet Curtin, asked McInerney whether Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet understood the arrangement was a sham, meaning the Beckington money would actually flow to them. McInerney said he could not recall the Bowral meeting and rejected earlier evidence from Assaf that Greenwood and McInerney had met this year to discuss their summons (The Guardian).

The previous day, 13 August, McInerney denied ever asking the federal opposition leader for money for Liberal Party power brokers (The Guardian). ICAC is also investigating whether people linked to the Reformers asked for money from donors who are banned from giving, and then disguised those donations (ABC).

Why does the funding source matter? About 80% of the money Catholic Schools NSW distributes comes from state and federal governments, totalling about $3.8 billion in 2024. That means the allegations involve public money, not just private funds. McInerney stepped aside from his CEO role before the ICAC hearings began.

The Independent Education Union, which represents education workers, has used the inquiry to call for tighter oversight. The union's NSW/ACT branch secretary, Carol Matthews, said close scrutiny of public funding was not applied to organisations like Catholic Schools NSW that receive funding on behalf of Catholic schools. The union said it was deeply concerned that public funding for Catholic schools may have been wrongfully spent on Liberal Party matters (The Guardian).

NSW premier Chris Minns has ruled out a separate independent audit of Catholic Schools NSW while the ICAC inquiry is ongoing. That decision leaves ICAC as the only immediate mechanism for examining whether public funds were misdirected. As of ICAC's current-investigations listing, the hearing in the Operation Rosny public inquiry has concluded.

The broader context here extends beyond the individuals under investigation. The Reformers faction, rooted in the party's Christian conservative wing, has been a significant force in NSW Liberal Party internal politics. The allegations sit at the crossing point of political faction machinery, electoral funding rules, and the governance of non-government education that receives public money. If ICAC finds that Catholic Schools NSW payments were channelled into factional work, the implications would reach into the accountability frameworks governing how billions in public money are given to non-government education providers, and whether the conditions attached to that funding are enforceable in practice.

For McInerney, the stakes are both personal and institutional. His rejection of the "sham" characterisation puts his testimony in direct conflict with the narrative ICAC's lawyers have been building. The competing accounts from Assaf and McInerney on key meetings and communications will require the Commission to weigh credibility against documentary evidence. ICAC's findings, when delivered, could reshape expectations around transparency for organisations that act as channels for public money.