July 29, 2026 — 7:30pm
About 11.30am on Monday, the ICAC counsel assisting Dr Peggy Dwyer, SC, was busy outlining the anti-corruption watchdog’s jaw-dropping exposé into the factional workings of senior figures in the NSW Liberal Party and their alleged highly lucrative links to fugitive property developer Jean Nassif.
At the same time, a few blocks away at Parliament House in Macquarie Street, Liberal leader Kellie Sloane’s office hit send on its own showstopping press release: “NEW DATA RAISES FRESH CONCERNS ABOUT NSW SKILLS PIPELINE.”
It was a busy day for Sloane, who spent the morning speaking to commuters at the metro stop at Crows Nest, announced an artificial intelligence policy at lunch, and then met opponents of the carve-up of the Moore Park golf course in the afternoon. The message was not subtle: We’re posting through it.
Sure, the ICAC might be busy airing sensational allegations that a group of well-connected young turks from the right faction of the Liberal Party received $2 million from Nassif to stack branches and preselect candidates who would be sympathetic to his developments. And sure, Nassif may have bragged to his developer buddies that he had “hands on the state government” and would “step on [the] neck” of the then-building commissioner, David Chandler, by having “one of my girls” appointed as NSW fair trading minister to remove him.
