Jean-Claude Perrottet, the younger brother of former NSW Liberal premier Dominic Perrottet, has told an anti-corruption inquiry he recruited ethnic minority conservatives into Liberal Party branches in Sydney's north-west with the goal of displacing a sitting federal MP. The admissions came before the Independent Commission Against Corruption's Operation Rosny inquiry on Wednesday.

Ethnic minority recruits targeted for Hills District branches

Counsel assisting the inquiry, Juliet Curtin, read from an internal document produced by a Christian group called the Reformers — of which Jean-Claude Perrottet was a member — that outlined a plan to sign up at least 10 new members to a Liberal branch in the federal seat of Mitchell. The document described the recruits by ethnicity and age, with Perrottet confirming the language used included references to Asian, Korean and "wog" members.

The seat of Mitchell was at the time held by Alex Hawke, a Centre Right faction MP who served as an assistant minister in the Turnbull government in 2018 and later held the immigration portfolio under Scott Morrison. The Reformers, it emerged, were aligned with the Liberal Right faction and were seeking to challenge Hawke's hold on the electorate.

Another key Reformers organiser, Christian Ellis, had suggested routing some of the new recruits into the Baulkham Hills branch of the party. When Ms Curtin put to Perrottet that Ellis appeared to be directing recruits to specific branches based on their ethnicity and age, Perrottet suggested Ellis was "probably just talking about the timing of putting memberships in."

Factional work done on taxpayer time, Perrottet concedes

At the time of the recruitment activity in 2018, Jean-Claude Perrottet was working as an electorate officer for state Liberal MP Damien Tudehope, then the member for Epping and also a Right faction member. His older brother Dominic was serving as NSW Treasurer under Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

Under questioning, Jean-Claude Perrottet admitted he had been carrying out Right faction work for the Reformers during office hours — a clear breach of electorate officer staffing rules.

"Yeah, within nine to five, yep," he told the inquiry, confirming it was not an isolated incident. "I've texted someone about another topic while at work. I would do factional work, yeah."

Clarke, Folau and a push toward pre-selection

The hearing also heard that in late 2018 and into 2019, Perrottet went on to work for Upper House Liberal MP David Clarke, a Catholic conservative with a long-standing factional rivalry with Alex Hawke, who had split from the Right to form his own Centre Right grouping before entering parliament roughly two decades earlier.

While working for both Clarke and later again for Tudehope — by then a minister — Perrottet circulated Reformers petitions on social issues to attract conservative recruits. One such petition related to the high-profile sacking of rugby player Israel Folau from the Wallabies after he paraphrased a Biblical verse on social media.

With Liberal Party rules requiring members to hold membership for two years before they can stand for branch positions, Perrottet ramped up recruitment and membership renewal efforts in 2020, positioning the Reformers' new base ahead of pre-selections for the 2023 state election scheduled in 2022.

What the inquiry means for the Liberal Right

Operation Rosny is examining branch stacking and membership manipulation within the NSW Liberal Party. The evidence from Jean-Claude Perrottet adds detail to the picture of how organised factional networks within the party allegedly used ethnic community recruitment, social issue campaigns and staffer resources to shift internal power balances — raising serious questions about integrity within party administration and the use of public resources for factional purposes.

The inquiry is ongoing and further witnesses are expected to appear in coming days.