NSW Premier says resignation letter penned by former building commissioner sent to ICAC

The NSW Premier says a letter penned by a former official has been sent to the corruption watchdog after weeks of speculation about the document.

The NSW Premier says the state’s corruption watchdog has been provided with a resignation letter penned by an official who quit under mysterious circumstances.

Dominic Perrottet told parliament’s question time on Wednesday that a senior bureaucrat had sent former building commissioner David Chandler’s resignation letter to ICAC.

“I’ve read the resignation letter from David Chandler to the Department of Customer Service secretary Emma Hogan,” he said.

“This is a personal letter related to an employment matter,” he said.

“I‘ve been advised by the secretary that appropriate action was taken by her in relation to the contents of the letter. Out of the abundance of caution the letter was provided to the ICAC for information.”

Premier Dominic Perrottet said the letter had been sent to the ICAC. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

NSW Labor has demanded the letter be made public, believing it may shine light on why the building watchdog boss quit.

Mr Perrottet said the upper house would get the letter on Thursday.

He said Ms Hogan had forwarded the letter to the ICAC on August 1, and that he was informed of that fact late Wednesday night.

Mr Chandler resigned recently, but the reasons have not been made public.

The minister overseeing him, former fair work minister Eleni Petinos, was fired shortly afterwards.

Mr Perrottet told parliament her sacking had nothing to do with Mr Chandler’s resignation.

“Despite the fact that we’ve known about this resignation for weeks and weeks, the Premier informed the parliament (on Wednesday) that he had not read it,” Labor leader Chris Minns said earlier in the day.

“I’d encourage the NSW Premier to examine that letter.”

Building commissioner David Chandler quit under mysterious circumstances. Picture: Toby Zerna

The letter is expected to reveal Mr Chandler cited a “problematic” relationship with Ms Petinos, whose office he found it difficult to get a hold of.

Ms Petinos was asked to resign by Mr Perrottet after he was made aware of allegations, which she denied, that she ran an unsafe office.

The letter is also expected to contain references to a stop-work order Mr Chandler issued to Coronation Property, a firm that earlier this year hired ex-deputy premier John Barilaro as its executive director.

Eleni Petinos is no longer a minister. Picture: NCA NewsWire / David Swift

MPs on a committee investigating Mr Barilaro’s appointment as trade envoy to New York are understood to be interested in further examining contacts between Ms Petinos, Mr Barilaro and Coronation Property.

Ministerial diaries released this week showed Mr Barilaro attended a meeting between Ms Petinos and the property firm on June 21, weeks before Mr Chandler’s stop-work order was lifted.

Mr Barilaro had already quit his job with the firm because he had been hired for the New York role.

Chris Minns said the letter should be made public. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Dylan Coker

The former deputy premier told The Daily Telegraph that the meeting was a “social engagement” to ”celebrate his appointment” as senior trade and investment commissioner.

Labor MP Courtney Houssos, the party’s spokeswoman for better regulation, successfully moved a motion to force the release of the resignation letter on Wednesday.

She said the day before she would question Mr Barilaro about the matter when he returned on Friday to give evidence to the committee.

“I think it’s really important we get to the bottom of this,” she said.