‘Did your wife lie to commission?’: Perrottet quizzed on conflicting evidence

Right-wing Liberal powerbroker Charles Perrottet has insisted his wife Anita did not lie to a corruption inquiry despite conflicting evidence from the couple about why they were paid hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Perrottet told the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Tuesday his wife’s company Macquarie Consulting received money as remuneration for advice he had given to help his friend Jeremy Greenwood with his client Jean Nassif and his construction company Toplace.

This was despite Anita telling the commission Charles did not do any work for Macquarie Consulting and the only client she had was Greenwood’s company Beckington, which subcontracted her to give “strategic advice” on Greyhound Racing NSW.

Anita’s evidence was that neither she nor her husband ever did any work to benefit Toplace, and all the money she received from Beckington was solely for work she was doing for Greyhound Racing NSW.

Counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, has asked Charles Perrottet to explain why he never mentioned his arrangement with Beckington in previous private hearings with the commission, and why no other people involved in the arrangement, including Anita, ever mentioned this before.

“Did your wife then lie to the commission last week about the amount that was, in fact, covering your advice?” Dwyer asked.

“No, as I said to you, I’m not sure how much I disclosed to Anita,” Perrottet said.

Perrottet previously told the ICAC he and Anita sent invoices from Macquarie Consulting together, at the direction of Greenwood’s business partner Christian Ellis.

“Did you just want to patronise Anita so that she thought she was genuinely charging for this work when in fact it was your advice?” Dwyer asked.

Perrottet has told the commission the payments his wife received from Beckington for an average of 16 hours a week of work was not a significant amount.

He said he and his wife were instructed to hold off on sending invoices for work Anita was doing because Beckington was having “cash-flow problems”.

Macquarie Consulting was paid $150,000 for a year’s worth of advice, the ICAC heard.

Perrottet told the commission “$150,000 for a year’s worth of work, I don’t think, is a significant amount of money”.

Dwyer asked: “You don’t think it’s a significant amount of money for part-time work, for 16 hours a week, on a flexible level?”