Two of NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet’s brothers have ignored a summons to entrance a parliamentary inquiry inspecting the affect of property builders on a council in Sydney’s northwest.
Charles and Jean-Claude Perrottet have been known as to seem earlier than the inquiry into Hills Shire Council starting on Wednesday however have failed to reply to invites and official summons.
The inquiry follows Liberal MP Ray Williams final yr utilizing parliamentary privilege to allege Christian Ellis and different unnamed senior members of his personal get together have been paid to put in new councilors who could be pleasant to high-flying Sydney developer Jean Nassif.
Requested on Saturday if he had spoken to his brothers concerning their obvious refusal to entrance the inquiry, the Premier replied with a blunt “no”.
“It is a matter for the upper-house inquiry… I am not going into these particulars,” Mr Perrottet mentioned.
Committee chair and Greens MP Sue Higginson mentioned the inquiry had taken the intense step of summoning the Perrottet brothers, Mr Ellis and Hills Shire councilor Virginia Ellis and Mr Ellis’s mom, however all 4 gave the impression to be “intentionally avoiding accepting service of the summons”.
‘Calculated and coordinated’
“This seems to be a calculated and coordinated try to keep away from scrutiny by the NSW parliament,” she mentioned.
Mr Nassif, who’s now in Lebanon, wrote to the committee final week asking for hearings to be postponed.
In his letter, he denied paying anybody to “undertake any actions concerning pre-selections or any related actions”, including he had not met with any present councilors and he was unaware of their views on his developments.
However senior Labor MP Penny Sharpe mentioned the allegations raised by Mr Williams, which have additionally been referred to the Impartial Fee In opposition to Corruption, have been very critical and known as on the Perrottets and the Ellises to entrance the inquiry.
‘Folks need to know’
“They will clear this up in the present day by coming ahead and saying they’re going to present up… (for) the general public hearings,” she advised reporters.
“Folks need to know this earlier than the elections”.
The controversy over the Hill Shire Council listening to comes as the federal government introduced an $11 million grant to North Sydney Oval as a part of its dedication to ladies’s sports activities.
The premier additionally promised a 3.Three km elevated excessive line reworking the rail hall from Lavender Bay to Waverton into a brand new public area with sweeping views of Sydney harbor if he was re-elected.
-AAP
