‘Victim’ builders will open the books to ICAC over Barilaro saga

The company at the centre of the John Barilaro scandal claim they are victims of a smear campaign and are happy to open their books to ICAC.

The company at the centre of the John Barilaro scandal claim they are victims of a smear campaign and are happy to open their books to the corruption watchdog.

In an exclusive interview, Coronation Property chief Joe Nahas denies former ­employee John Barilaro had any involvement in the issues they dealt with regarding Building Commissioner David Chandler or NSW Fair Trading.

The Sunday Telegraph can reveal it was the potential cancellation of the company’s builder’s practitioner registration for alleged safety ­breaches – and not the removal of a separate stop-work order issued by the Office of the Building Commissioner – that was the reason for the meeting with former fair trading minister Eleni Petinos.

However, Mr Nahas claims Coronation was in fact directed by Mr Chandler to engage with Fair Trading over the potential cancellation of their builder’s practitioner registration – a separate and still outstanding matter which could severely curtail their business.

“He (Mr Chandler) said you ‘should contact Fair Trading, it’s not a matter for me’,” Mr Nahas said.

Coronation Property’s Senior Project Manager Ramy Azzam, Managing Director of Coronation Joe Nahas and Senior Site Manager Carlo Cordi. Picture: Tim Hunter.

In his resignation letter made public this week, Mr Chandler said he had “concerns” over the “relationship of the minister and Coronation Property Group”.

That letter was referred to ICAC by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.

Former deputy premier John Barilaro before the parliamentary inquiry int the New York trade role. Picture: Gaye Gerard

Responding to that resignation letter directly, Mr Nahas said: “I would deny that we have had any special treatment. I met the minister twice in my whole life and neither time was about the stop-work order,” he said.

“The facts have been twisted around to suit the various agendas of people in this saga.

“Coronation is in the middle of it and the victim of it.”

There is no suggestion Mr Barilaro had anything to do with the reason the stop-work order was issued or lifted.

Mr Nahas said the UDIA award-winning company, which has a 10,000 dwelling development pipeline worth upwards of $5 billion, “has every intention to be fully co-operative with the ICAC”.

“If we don’t take the opportunity to speak to elected officials they could continually make the same silly mistakes,” he said, adding: “Good government is about inter­acting with industry, listening to industry, because we are at the coalface of it.”

NSW Building Commissioner David Chandler. Picture: Toby Zerna

The stop-work order was lifted on July 4 after extensive correspondence with the Office of the Building Commissioner. Mr Barilaro, the former NSW deputy premier and Nationals leader, worked for the company from February 23 to June 17 and was paid a base salary with no other ­incentive, Mr Nahas said.

Ms Petinos’s ministerial diary said she met with Coronation twice, on June 2 and 21. The second meeting was at a restaurant just before Mr Barilaro was due to go to New York to take up a $500,000-a-year role as the state’s trade and investment commissioner to the Americas.

He was no longer employed with the company at that time and has since declined to take the trade role.

Mr Nahas said the dinner was a “farewell meeting for John” and that he did not discuss either the stop-work order or the builders practitioner registration matter.

Mr Chandler and the Office of the Building Commissioner declined to comment.