Angus Taylor Named at Icac: Texts Put Money in the Frame
The hearing is part of a broader ICAC investigation into factional financing and political donations inside the NSW Liberal Party.
Angus Taylor Named at Icac: Texts Put Money in the Frame
Australia's New South Wales Independent Commission Against Corruption heard text messages on Thursday implicating federal opposition leader Angus Taylor in the alleged funding of a Liberal Party factional group known as the Reformers, according to The Guardian. Jean-Claude Perrottet, brother of former NSW premier Dominic Perrottet, was questioned about the messages, which suggested Taylor had either "paid money to the Reformers… or was refusing to." Taylor has not been charged with any offence, and the inquiry has not made findings against him.
The hearing is part of a broader ICAC investigation into factional financing and political donations inside the NSW Liberal Party. The Reformers, a conservative grouping within the party, have been under scrutiny over the flow of funds during a period when Taylor was consolidating his position as a senior federal figure. He currently leads the federal opposition ahead of Australia's next election cycle.
The significance is structural rather than personal: if a sitting opposition leader's name appears in text messages tendered as evidence at a corruption inquiry, the question of who knew what — and who authorised what — becomes a matter of public record, not internal party business. Per The Guardian's live coverage, the inquiry continues, with further witnesses expected to be called.
Taylor has denied wrongdoing. ICAC's findings, when they come, will not be a verdict — but in Australian politics, they rarely need to be.
