Parramatta’s ‘Pink Ladies’ plotted council restructure while on holiday together, ICAC hears

Before Gail Connolly was appointed to lead the staff of the City of Parramatta, an employee informed the council’s second-most powerful staffer of a list of names he should expect would soon work at the council, an anti-corruption inquiry has heard. The names mentioned all soon had jobs.

Justin Mulder was the chief of staff at the western Sydney council when Connolly became its chief executive officer in 2023, and witnessed “the hollowing-out of the organisation and its capability”, he told Wednesday’s inquiry into the former boss and other staff, where he also said an anonymous email claiming he’d committed fraud was aimed at “discrediting” his later attempt to run for a spot on the council.

In Operation Navarra, the Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating multiple allegations against Connolly, including that she spied on staff and a councillor, and used confidential information for improper purposes, including rewarding allies and removing critics or perceived opponents.

It is also investigating whether two colleagues, Roxanne Thornton and Jones-Blayney, intentionally subverted recruitment practices to benefit friends and associates. The trio was known as the “Pink Ladies” or “Pink Ops”, Counsel Assisting Joanna Davidson, SC, said in her opening address.

The “Pink Ops” talked among staff about playing netball, socialising outside of work and going on holidays together, Mulder said. He had heard from a colleague and other staff at Ryde Council that, on one holiday, they had planned a restructure of Parramatta Council.

The relationship between Thornton and Connolly was “extremely close”, Mulder said. “[Thornton] was almost always in Gail’s office, there were frequent meetings … She conveyed to me her loyalty to Gail, and that when Gail had been moved on from a previous role … she had quit in protest.”

Soon after Connolly arrived, Mulder was told by a colleague that Thornton had been telling colleagues she was “going to have my role”.

“I’d heard repeatedly that Roxanne was communicating with colleagues that she was going to be in that role and was speaking with a high degree of confidence,” he said.

Connolly had created a new legal governance position and “strongly encouraged” Mulder to apply for it, he said. He didn’t apply because he didn’t have a law degree. The job had no requirement for a tertiary degree.

“She said, ‘You don’t need to have a legal qualification, you just need to be a great manager,’” he told the inquiry. He did not accept her explanation and suspected Connolly’s motivation in having Mulder move was “that I would make way for Ms Thornton”. Thornton, whom the commission heard held no tertiary qualifications, was appointed to the role.

Then, Connolly restructured the organisation and created a new “group manager” role taking in Mulder’s chief-of-staff tasks as well as governance, lord mayor and chief executive support duties. There was a one-week, internal-only recruitment process, and Mulder said Connolly told him she wanted Mulder and Thornton to apply.

Mulder said he did not apply for the combined role because the process was tilted in Thornton’s favour. He was offered a job at a lower level. He took a redundancy deed, which included a mutual non-disparagement clause.

“I was concerned I would be disparaged after I left the organisation,” he said, “I’d overheard negative conversations about previous staff who had left the organisation.”

Anonymous email sent to ‘discredit’ Mulder

Mulder left the council in July 2024 and shortly afterwards announced he was running as a candidate for the City of Parramatta council in the September local government elections in independent Kellie Darley’s Community Champions party.

“If I’d been elected, then there would have been a much stronger focus on probity and integrity,” Mulder said.

Nine days before the election, local reporters and councillors were sent an email from an account called “Truth InGovernment”, which alleged Mulder had committed “timesheet fraud” for a casual employee. He dismissed it as an “extremely clumsy smear campaign” to discredit him.

“I felt that it could only have come from the office of the lord mayor, specifically Roxanne and Gail, who would have had access to this information,” he said. On Monday, Counsel Assisting said it was sent by Connolly.

In November, after Mulder left, the council opened an investigation into him, in which he did not participate, doubting its independence. In early 2025, Brendan Clifton, the council’s new HR boss, contacted Mulder to inform him the council’s investigation had substantiated fraud allegations. Mulder asked whether he should report the process to the ICAC.

“He attempted to persuade me not to do that,” Mulder said. “He had also advised that they reserve the right to have the findings communicated with third parties, which was, I thought, also a breach of the [mutual non-disparagement] deed.”

The hearing continues.