‘Corrupt’ MP John Sidoti doubles down as Premier, Labor vow to kick him from parliament

John Sidoti has revealed details of an expletive-filled exchange with Dominic Perrottet after the Premier asked him to resign, maintaining his innocence after being declared corrupt by ICAC.

Embattled former NSW Liberal John Sidoti has again refused calls to resign after being found corrupt by ICAC, revealing details of a fiery exchange with the Premier when asked to step down.

Mr Sidoti said he would fight to clear his name after an ICAC investigation determined that he leant on local councillors to include his parent’s function centre in plans to redevelop the suburb.

Speaking to 2GB’s Ben Fordham on Wednesday morning, the Liberal MP maintains his innocence and said he “absolutely” denies the allegations and reaffirmed his intention to stay in parliament.

“It’s simply not correct. I know what I have and haven’t done in my heart. I’m innocent,” he said.

“Three years of misery I’ve had to put up with. It’s a ridiculous system set up and no one has the spine to reform it.”

NSW MP John Sidoti has declared he will fight ICAC’s allegations of corruption. Picture: Joel Carrett

Asked if he’d do things differently with his time again, Mr Sidoti said he wouldn’t change a thing.

He denied any wrongdoing when prompted over whether or not he believed disclosing properties interests were important for the ICAC investigation, and asked if he had “learned any lessons”.

“If you’re going to be scared to speak your mind and speak the truth publicly…you wouldn‘t be doing anything as an MP. You’d be voiceless,” he said.

“(It wasn’t) some devious plan that I literally didn’t disclose…it was nothing like that.

“If you talk to the average punter… we’ve owned that property since 1992. It’s not as if nobody knew (that my family didn’t own it).

“It’d be hard to find anybody in the area that didn’t know that I had business interests in properties in the area.”

After ICAC aired its decision on Wednesday, Mr Sidoti confirmed some colourful language was used towards Premier Dominic Perrottet upon being asked to step down.

Mr Sidoti revealed he’d had a fiery exchange with Premier Dominic Perrottet. Picture: Monique Harmer

“It was two words, and I can’t mention them on camera,” he said.

Fordham responded: “Was the second one off?”

Mr Sidoti said, “no, it started with ‘f’”, to which the radio host replied, “was is ‘get effed’?”

After a short moment of hesitation and silence, the embattled Liberal MP said “I can’t remember exactly but they’re words I don’t often use in my vocabulary”.

It comes after Mr Sidoti on Wednesday first vowed to clear his name in court and defied calls to resign after the watchdog declared he had engaged in “serious corrupt conduct”.

Authorities are now being asked to consider whether the Member for Drummoyne should be criminally charged as Labor and his former party allies, including the Premier, move to suspend him from parliament.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption, on Wednesday, released its findings in Operation Witney, which probed Sidoti’s interaction with Liberal councillors from the City of Canada Bay and his family’s ownership of a function centre in Five Dock.

The MP steadfastly denied claims aired by the ICAC that he leant on local councillors to include his parents’ function centre in plans to redevelop the suburb.

He further denied using his position as a state MP to have Liberal preselectors overlook uncooperative councillors – ultimately ousting the mayor of Canada Bay Council.

John Sidoti leaves the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) in Sydney. Picture: Joel Carrett

But the ICAC found that, between 2013 and 2017, Sidoti undertook a “protracted course of conduct to try to improperly influence” Liberal councillors; Helen McCaffrey, Mirjana Cestar and Tanveer Ahmed.

“The Commission found that Mr Sidoti was unhappy with the recommendations directed to the revitalisation of the Five Dock town centre because the development potential of his family’s property … did not stand to materially benefit,” the ICAC said in a statement on Wednesday.

The ICAC said it was now seeking advice from the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether Sidoti should be charged criminally.

“The Commission is of the opinion that consideration should be given to obtaining the advice of the DPP with respect to the prosecution of Mr Sidoti for the offence of misconduct in public office,” the statement reads.

Sidoti, in a statement, took aim at the ICAC claiming it interviewed “disgruntled” Liberals and “interrogated” his family.

“This report has a number of unfounded inferences, errors and assumptions, and its findings are completely rejected,” he said.

John Sidoti arrives at his hearing at ICAC in Sydney April, 2021. Picture: Jeremy Piper

“The only positive for myself and my family is that the ICAC part of this saga is over.”

“I will continue to fight to clear my name and have instructed my lawyers to lodge an application in the Supreme Court.”

Hours earlier NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet contacted Sidoti telling him he should resign from NSW parliament.

“Should Mr Sidoti not resign, the NSW Government will move a motion to have him suspended,” Premier Perrottet said in a statement.

“The NSW Government has also sought legal advice in relation to this matter.”

“There is no place for corruption in the NSW parliament.”

NSW Labor confirmed they would support the suspension motion if Sidoti does not resign voluntarily.

That means Sidoti will be suspended – but still be able to claim a salary – if he does not quit.

Sidoti did not address calls to resign in his statement on Wednesday evening.

The ICAC found Sidoti’s conduct toward uncooperative councillors was to use “pressure and threats to try to interfere” with their official functions to further his family’s interests.

“It was contrary to his public duty to always put the public interest before his family property interests and involved a serious attempt to interfere with the independence and integrity of the exercise by other officials of their official functions,” the ICAC statement said.

When councillors still did not change course, the ICAC found, Sidoti would withdraw his endorsement for the 2017 council elections.

ICAC finds John Sidoti acted in contrary to his public duty, putting it forth to authorities to consider charging him for a criminal offence. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Sidoti fronted the ICAC last April and spent almost a week on the stand insisting he had no idea he was part of the family property and superannuation holdings that were overseen by his elderly parents – Catherine and Richard.

On his final day of testimony, answering questions from his own barrister, he said he’d never been aware of how documents named him as a beneficiary in their property “schemes”.

“This had just been mum’s drive all the time,” he said on Tuesday, rattling off her decades of property projects including boarding homes, villas and redevelopments.

Sidoti told the ICAC he believed he was “over disclosing” his income and interests when he became parliamentary secretary for planning.

“All I owned was the family home in the name of my wife and I,” he said.

“I had no other income aside from parliamentary income. There was no suggestion I was involved in other properties at all.”

The first time Sidoti became aware he was part of the family’s property empire, he said, was when NSW Labor leader Luke Foley stood up in NSW parliament with a bundle of documents that listed his name.

But the ICAC report shows the watchdog did not buy Sidoti’s evidence.

“The Commission is satisfied that Mr Sidoti knew he was a trustee of the Super Fund, knew that the Super Fund owned (the function centre), from 2007 acted in relation to that property in the capacity of a person with a legal interest in that property, and had more than a cursory understanding of the concepts of trustee and beneficiary well before his disclosable interest in (the property) was exposed in parliament in April 2017,” the report reads.

The ICAC said Sidoti’s failure to declare his interest in the function centre breached the Members’ Code of Conduct and the Ministerial code but it was not satisfied the Members’ Code had been substantially breached.

Gladys Berejiklian with disgraced MP Daryl Maguire in December, 2021.

Sidoti moved from the Liberal Party to the cross bench amid his ICAC investigation last year.

He served as a Minister in the Berejiklian government.

The finding against Sidoti marks the latest public scandal to plague the senior ranks of the coalition.

In less than 12 months; Premier Gladys Berejiklian resigned after being caught up in a separate ICAC targeting her former boyfriend, Liberal MP Daryl Maguire, Scott Morrison was defeated in the federal election and an inquiry was launched into a plum New York job offered to former Deputy Premier John Barilaro.

Liberal sources say young members are frustrated by the “short-sightedness” of the party’s senior generation and are agitating for “fresh blood” to be recruited from outside politics to change course.

“The party needs a cultural shift,” one source said.

“Some senior figures are so institutionalised, from being in the party so long, that they have no comprehension of the outside world or what’s on the nose in the public.”

One source said the state arm of the party, which has enjoyed a decade in power, must now learn from the failures of the Federal Party on two main issues.

“It can’t be more obvious what the public want the Liberal party to do; they want transparency and gender equality.”

“The best way through is fresh blood – it needs a generational change.”

The ICAC investigation into former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, which prompted Ms Berejiklian’s resignation, has yet to make any findings and there is no suggestion of illegality against Ms Berejiklian.