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The right are fond of criticising elites: inner-city elites, Canberra elites, university elites, public service elites.

Just ask the Liberal leader, Angus Taylor, and Nationals leader, Matt Canavan, who regularly rail against elites.

But those on the right have their own exclusive clubs, as we have gleaned during the first three weeks of hearings in Operation Rosny at the New South Wales Independent Commission against Corruption.

Elites like Catholic Schools NSW.

This week we’ve heard evidence about the payments made by Catholic Schools NSW to key figures and companies associated with the Reformers, a shadowy group of Liberal operatives who made it their “cause” to turn the Liberal party back towards conservative policies on abortion, gender, same-sex marriage and euthanasia by taking over branches within the party.

Icac is looking into allegations that payments made to the Reformers from Catholic Schools and others were illegal donations because they were used for political purposes, exceeded the donation caps and were not declared.

It’s perhaps understandable that many of the key employees within Catholic Schools NSW are Catholic.

What’s less understandable is why an organisation that manages $3.8bn in government grants and speaks for the entire Catholic school community in NSW appears to employ a preponderance of young men associated with Opus Dei and Redfield College, both very conservative parts of the Catholic ecosystem. Having the surnames “Tudehope” or “Perrottet” also seems to be an advantage.

The term “nepo baby” springs to mind – but perhaps that only applies if you’re a left elite or a film star’s child.

Dallas McInerney, who has served as the CEO of Catholic Schools since its founding nine years ago, was in the witness box on Thursday and Friday. John Perrottet, the father of the former premier Dominic Perrottet, is on the Catholic Schools board. Both John Perrottet and McInerney have stood aside during the Icac inquiry.

McInerney acknowledged to Icac that he was a prominent member of the NSW Liberal’s right faction and chair of the right-elected leadership meeting (RELM) that includes several conservative MPs, including Taylor, Dominic Perrottet, former NSW finance minister Damien Tudehope and former NSW planning minister Anthony Roberts.

McInerney is also a man with ambition. He’s tried on a number of occasions to secure a place on the Liberal NSW Senate ticket, only to be thwarted by the peculiar machinations that rack the party’s right.

On Thursday, McInerney faced questioning about how he had come to employ several Reformers at Catholic Schools NSW, or give them consultancy contracts.

The most recent was Jean-Claude Perrottet, Dominic Perrottet’s younger brother.

Jean-Claude worked for Catholic Schools between 2023 and 2026. McInerney was quizzed about when Jean-Claude was engaged, why he was promoted in May to director of communications and stakeholder management reporting to the CEO, and why he was made redundant in June.

“An internal restructure,” McInerney said. Nothing to do with the Icac inquiry.

McInerney had known Jean-Claude for much longer, possibly as far back as 2019, when Jean-Claude was organising for the Reformers and working for Tudehope in his parliamentary office.

Jean-Claude and fellow Reformer Christian Ellis had been let go by Tudehope when media reports emerged suggesting the pair’s main work in the office was of a factional nature, in breach of ministerial staff rules.

Ellis, who is now in the UK and who has so far declined to give evidence to Icac, went on to set up Beckington, a consultancy, in July 2019.

Who was the first client? Catholic Schools NSW, which paid Beckington $130,000 over the next two years.

McInerney spent the last two days in the witness box being repeatedly asked for evidence of what Beckington did.

No documents or emails – apart from invoices and the engagement letter and some diary entries for meetings – have come to light.

McInerney explained briefings on strategic advice and public engagement took place at face-to-face meetings, though evidence of these meetings was sparse and McInerney was unable to recall any detail of tasks Ellis and his business partner Jeremy Greenwood (who says he was not a Reformer) undertook.

On Friday, Icac zeroed in on Jean-Claude’s role when the Catholic Schools NSW contract moved in 2021 from Beckington to JPG Advisory.

Eillis had moved to the NSW town of Deniliquin and was attempting to get preselection for the federal seat of Farrer, after stacking the branches of the federal MP Sussan Ley. McInerney decided to cut ties with Beckington.

He moved to a new consultancy, JPG advisory, run by Greenwood.

McInerney said this switch “involved sensitivities” and so he had agreed to use Jean-Claude as “a conduit”.

McInerney insisted Jean-Claude had negotiated the fees and other aspects of the consultancy. But it soon emerged that there were no material changes between an August draft and the November signed contract, and that payments had begun to JPG as far back as July.

For this “service”, Jean-Claude was paid 50% of the estimated $135,000 fees paid by Catholic schools to JPG. Again, the written work output was unable to be produced apart from invoices.

McInerney professed ignorance of WhatsApp chats between the Reformers (he was not on the chats). These appeared to confirm that the Catholic Schools money was in fact being split between the key Reformers to fund their factional work.

Why would Rob Assaf and Jean-Claude Perrottet be at all interested in arrangements between Catholic Schools and Beckington, counsel assisting Juliet Curtin asked?

She suggested they knew McInerney would pay Beckington pursuant to a “sham arrangement” so money would find its way to Assaf and Jean-Claude to fund Reformers. McInerney disagreed.

The role Dylan Whitelaw, the youngest of the Reformers, had played in securing the work for the consultants was also curious.

Whitelaw, then 19, had met McInerney at the Mittagong branch of the Liberal party, where McInerney was president, and Whitelaw later became vice-president.

After finishing school, Whitelaw had gone to work for Catholic Schools as a data entry clerk. He later moved to Beckington.

According to Whitelaw’s evidence, he mainly undertook organising Reformers events. McInerney and Greenwood described him as having an administrative role in Beckington.

But curiously, Whitelaw also seems to have played a critical role in securing the funding for Beckington’s contract and increasing the payments. McInerney was shown emails where Whitelaw relays messages from McInerney about financial support for the Reformers, including the now-notorious message that McInerney was doing to “shake down Angus for $10K” during a breakfast meeting with ministers. Whitelaw became “the point of contact for administrative interplay”, McInerney said.

To round out the roll call of nepo babies at Catholic Schools, there was also James Tudehope. He was not a Reformer, but a son of Tudehope, one of the Reformers’ supporters. He spent several years as the Catholic Schools’ director of communications, though he had not worked in this role previously or for a media company.

McInerney insisted James was extremely capable and competent.

Unfortunately we have not yet heard from James, who is now a teacher in New Zealand and has declined to return to give evidence. But we know from Damien Tudehope’s evidence that James was anxious about the contract with Beckington.

Not to be forgotten is Assaf, another founding Reformer. He was also employed at Catholic Schools in 2019 in a role that involved him doing “Dallas work”.