A sacked CEO, a bungling detective and a jar of fingers: Five things we learnt from Operation Rosny week four

A three-day week of evidence at the ICAC began with revelations former Catholic Schools NSW chief executive Dallas McInerney had wiped his phone and iPad at a pub over the weekend and ended with an unscheduled press conference by an impassioned former police minister David Elliott on the street outside the commission’s CBD base.

Move over Royal Oaks , there’s a new pub of interest to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. The Hunters Hill Hotel was the place McInerney repaired to after last week’s appearance at the inquiry into allegations of corruption.

There he discovered his bank account did not work. That was the start of a chain of events that led to him telling the ICAC on Wednesday that he had factory reset his work iPhone and iPad.

Counsel assisting Peggy Dwyer, SC, suggested it was a “transparent attempt to wipe evidence”, which McInerney denied.

McInerney said he handed his devices back to Catholic Schools NSW because he understood it was unlikely he would be returning to work. It was a prescient observation.

McInerney learnt on Friday morning he had been sacked as chief executive by the board of Catholic Schools NSW.

Eleni Petinos, a former minister for fair trading and small business in the Perrottet government, told the ICAC she was disgusted by the thought that she was being used in a plot to remove building commissioner David Chandler from office.

She told the inquiry she now believes that Chris Spence, the former chief of staff to Anthony Roberts, leant on his friendship with her to get Chandler sacked.

“Frankly, even the little I knew coming into here today is enough to leave me disgusted and to feel like personal relationships were leant on in a highly improper way, and that’s not someone that you would call a friend,” she said.

Petinos was herself sacked as a minister by Dominic Perrottet after bullying allegations in 2022, and appeared on the verge of tears at the inquiry while recounting the phone call in which Dominic Perrottet delivered the news.

Petinos offered a taste of the former building commissioner David Chandler’s “robust” style in her evidence to the inquiry. Chandler, who is not a person of interest to the inquiry, was the target of a campaign by fugitive property developer Jean Nassif, who is.

“Chandler had bravado about conducting meetings with [a] jar with fingers in it and putting it on tables to indicate what he would do to people if they acted outside the confines of the law.”

This ghoulish anecdote was not explored further, with Petinos going on to say she respected Chandler’s professional judgment and gave no serious weight to suggestions he was “dodgy”.

Chandler is due to appear as a witness to the ICAC inquiry next week. Whether he brings his jar remains to be seen.