Christian Ellis has been named by ICAC, which will hold eight weeks of public hearings from late July.
ICAC will explore allegations to do with soliciting and accepting of improper donations to recruit or renew members of the Liberal Party of NSW by Christian Ellis, Jeremy Greenwood, Robert Assaf the Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of former Premier Dominic Perrottet.
A second allegation involves Christian Ellis, Charles Perrottet (another brother of Dominic) and Jeremy Greenwood, alleging they solicited and accepted political donations that were either made by or on behalf of property developer Jean Nassif.
Christian Ellis was at the centre of a Deniliquin Liberal Party branch controversy in early 2022, and was named in a 2023 NSW parliamentary inquiry by prominent branch member and Edward River councillor Shirlee Burge.
According to a report in the Pastoral Times in March 2023, Mrs Burge told the inquiry she met party operative Christian Ellis in late 2020 or early 2021 after branch members complained about an “unusual influx” of new members.
In early 2022 it was reported that Ms Ley was facing a pre-selection challenge from Mr Ellis, who had moved to Deniliquin after previously working for Nationals Senator Matt Canavan and Dominic Perrottet, who at the time was a member of the NSW Legislative Assembly.
His initial efforts to be accepted as a member of the Deniliquin Liberal Party branch were rejected, according to reports at the time.
In April 2022 the Pastoral Times reported Ms Ley was facing a challenge from Mr Ellis, which some branch members believed could be successful.
Mrs Burge was reported saying that from January 2020 almost 20 new members had joined the branch, where previously it was struggling to retain 11 members, and claimed a “vast majority” of the new members had been recruited by a recently developing far-right faction.
However, in Farrer any attempts to defeat Ms Ley for pre-selection were thwarted by then Prime Minister Scott Morrison, who stepped in and used executive powers to endorse her for the seat at the upcoming federal election.
Deniliquin Liberals wrote to the party’s state executive claiming the rights of local Liberal Party members in installing the candidate for Farrer had been by-passed.
