$150,000 Payment for Part-Time Work Was Not a ‘Significant’ Sum, Perrottet Tells ICAC

Charles Perrottet told a New South Wales corruption inquiry that $150,000 a year was not a significant payment for his wife’s part-time consultancy work, even as the commission examined what the money covered.

Anita Perrottet received the payment for an average of 16 hours a week through her company, Macquarie Consulting. The money came from Beckington, a company linked to lobbyist Jeremy Greenwood, who worked with fugitive property developer Jean Nassif and his company Toplace. The inquiry previously heard that Anita received more than $660,000 over about two and a half years.

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$150,000 for a year's worth of work, I don't think, is a significant amount of money.

Counsel assisting the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, Peggy Dwyer SC, asked Charles Perrottet whether he considered $150,000 significant for work performed at a flexible level. “$150,000 for a year's worth of work, I don't think, is a significant amount of money,” he replied. “Value is in the eye of the beholder. If there were value, if Jeremy had seen value in the work, he was paying accordingly.”

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Value is in the eye of the beholder. If there were value, if Jeremy had seen value in the work, he was paying accordingly.

Perrottet also told the public hearing that some money paid to Macquarie Consulting covered advice he personally gave Greenwood about Toplace. That differed from Anita Perrottet’s evidence the previous week, when she said the payments were for her consulting work and that neither she nor her husband had worked to benefit Toplace.

Dwyer questioned why Charles Perrottet had not disclosed the arrangement in earlier private hearings and whether he had told his wife that some payments compensated him for his advice. He denied deliberately hiding the arrangement, but said he could not say how much he had disclosed to Anita. ICAC is examining whether payments through companies linked to Greenwood represented genuine consulting fees.

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I wouldn't say deliberately hide it, but I wanted her … that she felt valued. She was doing a lot of good work for Jeremy.