It’s been almost four years since the former New South Wales MP, David Elliott, announced that he would not seek preselection for a seat in the Hills in greater Sydney after his own seat was abolished. He had realised that, thanks to branch stacking in his area, he stood no chance of securing another. Despite being a senior minister for eight years in the Baird, Berejiklian and Perrottet Liberal governments, Elliott’s political career was over.
Sure, he’d been a somewhat colourful character – he’d attracted his fair share of publicity, good and bad. But, as one former colleague put it: “It was hard not to like him.” Since his departure at the 2023 election, Elliott has discovered the full scale of bastardry that was directed against him to end his career. The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating allegations of illegal secret donations from property developers and others that were used to fund branch-stacking operations in breach of the NSW Electoral Funding Act.
Elliott’s appearance at Icac on Friday was a chance to air many matters that had clearly rankled. He is not a person of interest in the investigation, and appeared only as a witness. Elliott finally got to speak about what he had suspected for years: his belief that developer Jean Nassif, who is now a fugitive in Lebanon, was responsible for planting news stories that damaged his career, having him followed by private investigators, for death threats and for starting rumours that he was having an affair while his wife was undergoing cancer treatment.
Elliott told Icac the disagreements with Nassif stemmed from Elliot’s view that development needed to be slowed in the Hills because the area lacked the infrastructure to support huge housing developments. Nassif’s company, Toplace, was behind two large developments at Castle Hill – Skyline and Atmosphere – and was seeking approval for another at Cherrybrook, where he had bought land at very high prices. Several Toplace buildings have been slapped with rectification orders by the NSW building commissioner, David Chandler (more on him later).
Elliott told Icac that at first, Nassif had tried to woo him and meet him. There were attempts to make donations which were not permitted from developers under NSW laws, as Elliott pointed out. One occurred in a bar in Parramatta when he was meeting then-local councillor Martin Zaiter.
Elliott claimed it started off pleasantly, with Nassif introducing his daughter, but soon “he did the finger in the chest”. At one stage she went to a meeting organised by property development figure, Amanda Ghalloub, and found Nassif there. According to Elliott, Nassif told her: “we have pictures of your boss, we need you to spill the beans on your boss or it would not end well.” Elliot also believed that private investigators followed he and his wife.
Extract — continue reading at the source.
