What's Going On at the NSW Corruption Inquiry? A Plain-English Guide
On 7 September 2026, a corruption watchdog in New South Wales heard testimony from a lobbyist named Jeremy Greenwood about $2 million he allegedly received from a fugitive property developer named Jean Nassif.
The watchdog is called ICAC — the Independent Commission Against Corruption. It investigates claims that public officials or people close to them have acted dishonestly. In this case, ICAC is looking into whether political donations were made illegally.
The money, according to the lawyer helping the inquiry, Peggy Dwyer, was split three ways. It went to Greenwood, to a powerful Liberal Party figure named Charles Perrottet, and to another Liberal figure named Christian Ellis.
Charles Perrottet is the brother of Dominic Perrottet, who was the premier of NSW — the state's top political leader. Dominic Perrottet is not under investigation and is not accused of doing anything wrong.
Here's why the payments matter. Nassif owned a building company called Toplace, which collapsed. He was legally banned from making political donations in NSW — the law calls this being a 'prohibited donor.' Despite that ban, ICAC is investigating whether he funneled money to Liberal Party operatives anyway.
ICAC says the payments were meant to buy political results. One goal was to get a local council called the Hills Shire council removed. Another was to get rid of the NSW Building Commissioner, David Chandler, who had blocked Nassif's building projects because they had defects. Earlier transcripts from the inquiry, published on 2 September 2026, showed that Nassif wanted the Building Commissioner 'off his back.'
A key moment in the evidence came from a meeting in April 2020. Nassif, Charles Perrottet, and Greenwood were all there. The meeting was about paying large sums of money to get Nassif's building projects approved through a NSW government 'fast-track' process — a system meant to speed up how quickly building projects get the green light.
Around the same time, Greenwood and Ellis were texting each other photos of luxury cars they wanted to buy, including a Porsche 911 and a red Ferrari.
Greenwood admitted in his testimony that the three men were offered $1 million for every project of Nassif's that got into the fast-track system. Five projects were discussed — meaning the deal could have been worth $5 million in total. When the lawyer expressed surprise, Greenwood said that was just how Nassif did business.
The payment agreement was written on a scrap of pink paper, kept in the glasses case of one of Nassif's associates. The first payment of $148,500 was made on 11 September, according to evidence from a 3 September hearing.
Not all the projects went through the same approval process, and that caused arguments over who owed what. One project called Garthowen went through a different planning step than the others, leading to disputes about payment.
ICAC also said that Nassif originally wanted to pay $1 million to 'stack' Liberal Party branches. Branch stacking is when someone signs up lots of new party members to sway internal votes and get their preferred candidates chosen. Evidence from 31 August 2026 suggested Nassif thought he was funding upcoming candidate selections.
Charles Perrottet and Jeremy Greenwood say they did not take illegal political donations. Christian Ellis is overseas and is not expected to appear at the hearings. Jean Nassif is on the run and is believed to be in Lebanon.
The broader context here is that this inquiry is untangling a web where a government system meant to speed up building approvals may have been used by someone banned from political donations to get what he wanted — through payments to people inside a political party. The fact that a former premier's brother is involved, the main figure has fled the country, and one accused person won't appear at all makes it harder to get the full picture.
It is not yet clear whether the inquiry's findings will lead to changes in how the fast-track planning system works, or in the rules that ban certain donors from giving to politicians. The inquiry continues.
