One common factor among ICAC witnesses makes their questionable actions even more stupid

The American industrialist Henry Ford once observed that failure is the opportunity to begin again, this time more intelligently. He also said the only real mistake is the one from which we learn nothing.In professional politics, second chances after making serious mistakes are a gift not to be wasted.But a central theme of a new inquiry by the Independent Commission Against Corruption is the way in which so many political operatives threw away their own opportunities for fresh starts. Time and time again these men were caught up in scandal but given another shot, only to find themselves entangled in new drama. This history makes their already questionable actions even more stupid.Chris Spence, Jean-Claude Perrottet, Charles Perrottet and Christian Ellis. The leader of the Liberal Party’s Botched Second Chance Club is arguably Chris Spence, a former MP for the Entrance who this week found himself in the witness box at the corruption watchdog for the second time in 12 years.Spence is a one-time One Nation operative so underwhelming and uninspiring that he ordinarily would have no hope of being elected to the NSW parliament. But the 2011 election which pushed Labor out of Macquarie Street was so seismic it swept plenty of deadwood MPs into Barry O’Farrell’s new government.Spence was among them. Within three years, he was a central target of an inquiry into illegal donations and forced to resign from the Liberal Party to sit on the crossbench. He left parliament at the 2015 election and was later found by the ICAC to have disguised political donations from banned donors by using a sham consultancy company.Remarkably, the Liberal Party allowed Spence to return to the fold in 2019 as chief of staff to cabinet minister Anthony Roberts. Some supporters thought he had been hard done by in the 2014 Operation Spicer inquiry and deserved a shot at redemption. Something as serious as an alleged breach of electoral funding rules didn’t seem to bother the hard-right factional warlords who wanted him back.Chris Spence at the ICAC on Monday.Janie BarrettOld habits die hard, and it didn’t take long for Spence to find himself dragged into the latest ICAC inquiry, code named Operation Rosny. The ICAC is exploring whether Spence was used in a campaign to damage building commissioner David Chandler, who was a thorn in the side of disgraced developer Jean Nassif.Spence gave evidence to the ICAC he had been told by Charles Perrottet, the brother of former premier Dominic Perrottet, that Chandler was potentially corrupt. He wasn’t, of course – it was a smear designed to damage his standing with the government and force him to quit. Spence says he did not know that at the time.He denied any wrongdoing and is not a person of interest in the inquiry. Spence is now chief executive of a drug and alcohol rehabilitation centre on the Central Coast, and thankfully out of politics for good.He’s not alone in benefiting from a rare political comeback. There is also the curious case of Jean-Claude Perrottet, another brother of the former premier, who in briefly 2017 found himself in serious legal trouble. The Herald won’t repeat what that involved because he was swiftly found not guilty by a jury.But the outcome was a fresh chance for Jean-Claude to get on with his life – a point friends and family drilled into him at the time. He was soon given a job working for Liberal MP Damien Tudehope, but left after a dispute over doing factional work while in the taxpayer-funded role.At this point, Jean-Claude considered an exit from Macquarie Street theatrics. “At the end of 2019, I’m having many conversations with many people about getting out of politics, going into finance and totally walking away, so as to start my life,” he told the ICAC.Jean-Claude Perrottet gave evidence earlier this month.Dominic LorrimerBut instead, Jean-Claude was soon up to his eyeballs in factional wheeling and dealing for a Christian conservative sub-faction known as the Reformers. That work has now landed him in the ICAC hot seat. He did go to work for Medallion Financial from January 2020 until March 2023, but, ICAC heard, was again sacked, this time over the absurd lengths he went to in order to avoid appearing before a parliamentary inquiry into the Reformers. The 29-year-old was thrown a lifeline by his friend Dallas McInerney at Catholic Schools NSW via a $165,000 role, but was made redundant just weeks before the ICAC began its inquiry.Perrottet’s good friend and factional ally Christian Ellis was also sacked from Tudehope’s office over branch stacking, only to make a comeback as a wheeler and dealer inside the Coalition government through his advisory firm, Beckington. Ellis lasted just three months in Tudehope’s office as a senior policy adviser. Years earlier, he was fired from Dominic Perrottet’s electoral office for what former Liberal MP David Elliott told the ICAC was laziness and a failure to keep on top of constituent work. Ellis is now in London, refusing to co-operate with the ICAC inquiry he is being investigated by.The ICAC will this week hear from the final member of the Liberal Party’s second chance club: Charles Perrottet. The head of strategy and commercial development for BP in Australia and New Zealand, Charles has been accused by the ICAC’s lawyers of benefiting from a $2 million bribe from Jean Nassif. Charles will respond to these allegations publicly for the first time when he gives evidence.Widely considered to be a smarter operator than his brother Jean-Claude, Charles will be no stranger to the ICAC witness box. He gave evidence during the 2014 Operation Spicer inquiry over allegations he played a role in facilitating an illegal $5000 donation. He denied any wrongdoing and was not the subject of adverse findings.All eyes will be on him this Friday to see whether he can pull off the same result a second time.Start the day with a summary of the day’s most important and interesting stories, analysis and insights. Sign up for our Morning Edition newsletter. From our partners