NSW Premier Chris Minns has waved away any benefits Labor may gain from the week’s explosive ICAC revelations into dealings within the NSW Liberal Party.
The inquiry has spent the past week digging into links between the NSW Liberals, Catholic Schools NSW and business figures in Sydney. Only two of the 10 persons of interest have appeared so far.
And despite a week of incisive questions surrounding how the Reformers, a group of the party’s conservative religious faction, received and used their funding, the premier has remained diplomatic.
Asked if the inquiry was a “gift” to Labor ahead of the state election in March, Minns pointed to a surge in support for One Nation as a potentially “worrying” consequence.
“It’s interesting and perhaps worrying for me that over the same time that this inquiry has been taking place, One Nation’s vote has skyrocketed, and they’ve got nothing to do with this ICAC investigation,” Minns said on Sunday.
“My concern is that people say, ‘Well, I’ve seen Labor at ICAC, and I’ve seen the Liberal Party at ICAC. I’m going to vote for a third party this time.’”
“So I don’t think it’s necessarily the big boon for our political party that many believe.”
Speaking outside the North Cronulla Surf Life Saving Club to announce a $10 million investment in the club’s facilities, Minns looked to maintain a stoic position on the inquiry.
“I’ve been reluctant to offer a long-running commentary about it because I feel like this is an independent process, an independent inquiry,” he said.
“I also think it’s sad for politics when people who are in elected positions are acting in this way because it casts a pall over all of us, everybody in politics.”
Asked if, after watching the inquiry probe whether the group at the centre of the inquiry misappropriated funding or broke fundraising rules, the premier could only say the government would “monitor that”.
It comes as the federal Deputy Opposition Leader Jane Hume has insisted the inquiry was “distant” from Opposition Leader Angus Taylor.
Taylor became embroiled in the scandal after one of the witnesses, former NSW Liberal Party staffer Dylan Whitelaw, claimed he had agreed to a donation to support the Reformer’s activities.
Taylor is not directly involved in the inquiry and he is not a person of interest.
He has repeatedly declared that “no payments were made” to the NSW Reformers.
Hume doubled down, telling ABC’s Insiders that the issue is “distant” from Taylor and that ICAC should “be allowed to go through its processes free of political interference”.
She went on to admit she didn’t “actually understand” the activities of the Reformers, but added that “each of our state divisions should be undertaking a review of its own constitution and its own membership to make sure that we are the fighting fit, electoral machine that we should be in the lead up to both state and federal elections.”
Pressed on whether she would condemn the groups’ activities, Hume said it was a matter for ICAC in NSW and that she was “a Victorian”.
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Mostafa Rachwani is a Parramatta reporter at The Sydney Morning Herald. He was previously the Community Affairs reporter at Guardian Australia.Connect via email.From our partners
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