Commissioner’s resignation letter handed to NSW ICAC

The resignation letter of former NSW building commissioner David Chandler has been handed to the corruption watchdog.

Former NSW building commissioner David Chandler. Picture: Toby Zerna

The resignation letter of former NSW building commissioner David Chandler has been handed to the corruption watchdog amid revelations sacked fair trading minister Eleni Petinos met with a property developer linked to John Barilaro.

Eleven days after he sacked Ms Petinos over serious allegations she had bullied staffers, Premier Dominic Perrottet told parliament on Wednesday that Mr Chandler’s resignation letter had been referred to the Independent Commission Against Corruption on August 1 – the day after her dismissal.

Ministerial diary disclosures released on Tuesday revealed Ms Petinos had two meetings with Coronation Property, which employed Mr Barilaro as an executive director after he left politics in December.

The former deputy premier was present at the second meeting on June 21.

A stopwork order issued on the developer’s $500m project in Sydney’s west was lifted a week after the June 21 meeting. The purpose of the meeting was described in the ministerial diary as “Fair Trading building related matters”.

Mr Barilaro confirmed he had been present at the meeting but said he had not been employed by the developer at that point, and it was a “social engagement” to celebrate his appointment as the state’s New York trade commissioner.

Mr Chandler’s resignation letter is expected to be released publicly by the NSW upper house on Thursday, after the Legislative Council passed a motion compelling the government to hand over the document.

Mr Barilaro was no longer working for the company after signing the contract with the NSW government on June 9. He eventually stood down from the New York trade position, saying it was untenable given the level of media attention.

After being appointed by former premier Gladys Berejiklian in 2019 to clean up the construction sector, Mr Chandler resigned abruptly in late June to widespread conjecture, announcing he would leave on November 30, despite having recently signed a contract extension.

Pressed by Labor during question time as to whether he had read or received a briefing on the contents of Mr Chandler’s letter, Mr Perrottet said he had been told about ICAC’s referral late on Tuesday night.

“I can advise the house I’ve read the resignation letter from David Chandler to (Department of Customer Service secretary) Emma Hogan … I’ve been advised by the secretary that appropriate action was taken by her in relation to the contents of the letter,” he said.

“Out of the abundance of caution, the letter was provided to the ICAC for information. I understand the letter will be provided to the upper house tomorrow.”