Teachers demand more scrutiny of Catholic school funding amid allegations of ‘sham arrangement’ with NSW Liberal group

Independent Education Union ‘deeply concerned … public funding for Catholic schools may have been wrongfully spent on Liberal party matters’ Get our breaking news email, free app or daily news podcast The union for independent school teachers in New South Wales has demanded greater scrutiny of Catholic schools as the chief executive of their governing body told a corruption inquiry payments to a lobbying firm were not a “sham arrangement” to fund Liberal party factional work. Dallas McInerney insisted to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) on Friday that Catholic Schools NSW funding wasn’t misused. Icac is investigating whether McInerney arranged and approved illegal donations from the governing body for 600 Catholic schools to support alleged branch stacking efforts of the Christian factional group the Reformers. The group wanted more conservative policies on issues such as abortion, euthanasia and same-sex marriage. The inquiry has heard that Catholic Schools NSW paid Beckington, a lobbying company run by Reformers Christian Ellis and Jeremy Greenwood, $130,900 through invoices for consulting services between August 2019 and August 2021. Greenwood