The self-styled Braveheart crusader now accused of branch stacking

July 31, 2026 — 5:00am

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With his tidy beard and hair parted neatly on the side, softly spoken witness Robert Assaf, who nimbly sidestepped questions for much of the day, did not give the impression of a zealous crusader.

Giving evidence at the high-profile corruption inquiry into dodgy donors and branch stacking, Assaf agreed he was a co-founder of the Reformers, an ultra-right wing conservative Catholic branch of the NSW Liberal Party, along with Christian Ellis, a fellow person of interest to ICAC.

Assaf likened the factional battles within the Right faction of the Liberals to those featured in Braveheart, the 1995 Oscar-winning film in which Mel Gibson plays heroic Scottish knight William Wallace valiantly battling against the English.

“The Right faction was like – not sure if you’ve seen Braveheart – but like these warring kingdoms, and they would slaughter each other, and then every now and then they’d........

© The Sydney Morning Herald