Mr O'Farrell is due to give evidence at the Independent Commission Against Corruption on Tuesday after the commission heard last week that Brickworks secretly funded Mr Crocker's position in his office while he was opposition leader. Brickworks managing director Lindsay Partridge, left, with the then opposition leader Barry O'Farrell, at Austral Brickworks on March 12, 2011. Credit:Anthony Johnson Former Liberal fundraiser Paul Nicolaou told the commission that Brickworks paid for a researcher in 2009, 2010 and 2011 at a cost of $50,000 a year. However, he did not think Mr O'Farrell was aware of the arrangement, which he said was organised by then Liberal Party state director Mark Neeham. The ICAC has also heard Brickworks donated $125,000 to the Liberal-linked Free Enterprise Foundation, a federally registered organisation, which was then allegedly channelled back to the NSW Liberals for use in the 2011 state election campaign.

Brickworks is Australia's largest brickmaker but also has a property development arm. Property developers have been banned from donating to state election campaigns in NSW since late 2009. Then premier Barry O'Farrell at Austral Brickworks, where he is greeted by managing director Lindsay Partridge, on July 14, 2011. Credit:Andrew Rohan MP, Facebook Mr O'Farrell visited the Horsley Park headquarters of Brickworks subsidiary Austral Bricks on March 12, 2011. During the visit Mr O'Farrell announced that if Coalition won the March 26 election it would repeal what he called Labor's "sneaky" home buyers tax – a levy on property transfers worth more than $500,000, announced by planning minister Tony Kelly in 2010. Attending the announcement was a representative of the Property Council of Australia which had railed against the new tax as "a brake on investment" and "effectively ... a second stamp duty".

Six weeks after winning the election, Mr O'Farrell made good on his pledge to repeal the property tax with legislation introduced to the Parliament on May 9. The repeal bill was introduced to the Legislative Assembly by Mike Baird, who was then the Treasurer and who became Premier in April this year after Mr O'Farrell resigned over giving false evidence to a previous ICAC inquiry. Mr Baird told Parliament at the time that the Coalition opposed the tax because "additional property taxes hurt both home buyers and the construction industry in general". The bill was given assent on May 25. On July14, as Premier, Mr O'Farrell made another visit to the Brickworks site at Horsley Park. This time, Mr O'Farrell used the visit to warn that the then federal Labor government's carbon tax would add an extra $1.3 billion to NSW infrastructure costs.

Mr O'Farrell told the media that the NSW government used 81 million bricks a year for schools, hospitals and public housing. He added that with brick prices forecast to rise by 6 per cent, "the increase in the cost of bricks is going to impact to cost of housing". On Monday, emails released by ICAC revealed that in March 2011 Mr Nicolaou advised Peta Credlin, chief of staff to then federal opposition leader Tony Abbott, that Brickworks managing director Lindsay Partridge was "a very good supporter to the party".



On March 1, 2011, Mr Nicolaou forwarded to Ms Credlin a note from Mr Partridge urging him to tell Mr Abbott "to stick to his guns on no carbon tax". In response, Ms Credlin asks Mr Nicolaou for Mr Partridge's telephone number so she can contact him about using one of his carbon tax comments in question time in federal Parliament. On May 2, 2011, Mr Abbott visited the Austral Bricks factory in Melbourne, where he claimed a carbon tax would lead to a 10 per cent rise in costs at Brickworks, which would be passed on to consumers. As Prime Minister, Mr Abbott oversaw the introduction of legislation axing the carbon tax which passed Parliament in July this year.

Loading Mr O'Farrell declined to comment. A spokesman for Mr Baird said: "Mr Crocker's salary in opposition was funded by the Liberal Party".