Former NSW police and transport minister David Elliot gave evidence at an Independent Commissioner Against Corruption hearing on Friday, saying he was pushed out of the Liberals by the hard-right faction ahead of the 2023 state election.
That followed years of work by what he described as a cult that has taken over the Liberal Party to change the balance of power, making it effectively impossible for him to be preselected elsewhere after his seat was abolished.
Speaking outside the hearing, Mr Elliott said he was motivated to get into politics to fight corruption in public office - a campaign he said would never finish.
"We still have people in the shadow ministry ... who gave evidence to criminals," he told reporters.
"We still have people in that parliamentary party, in the NSW parliament, who were a party to the corruption we've seen not only today, but over the last month."
Earlier, a key figure in the inquiry, Dallas McInerney, was sacked from his role as chief executive of Catholic Schools NSW days after giving evidence.
The ICAC inquiry is examining allegations he potentially broke NSW donation laws by directing money to a right-wing Christian faction of the NSW Liberal party.
Mr McInerney told the commission he wiped his phone and iPad before his final day of evidence, doing so after finding his bank account had been blocked and his ApplePay had been rejected.
In a statement on Friday, the Catholic Schools NSW board said it lost confidence in Mr McInerney's ability to lead the organisation.
The matters at the centre of the inquiry were of deep concern to the organisation and its stakeholders, they said, despite the fact the probe heard it was not responsible for or aware of the alleged conduct.
Mr Elliot earlier told the commission he saw a private investigator parked on his street after he wrote a letter in February 2020 to then-NSW planning minister Rob Stokes opposing a proposed development in western Sydney.
Mr Elliott said he knew the property developer behind the project - Jean Nassif - was responsible for the surveillance, describing it as invasive but comical.
"(The private detective) was monitoring the wrong house ... I hope they weren't paying too much," he said.
Mr Elliot said Nassif "went nuts" after he opposed his development, leaving him a threatening voicemail and approaching him a number of times in public.
Nassif also threatened the former MP's chief of staff with what he said was a compromising photo of Mr Elliot firing a sub-machine gun at a correctional centre, the commission heard.
The photo formed part of a salacious "David Elliott shit sheet" which the commission was told about in July, prepared by Liberal staffer Dylan Whitelaw.
Mr Elliot said he was contacted by a journalist from News Corp about the photo, but said he had no issue with its publication and had not been trying to hide it.
"I was there in a ministerial capacity, firing a weapon because I was opening a rifle range, which corrections had just refurbished," he said.
The inquiry is probing allegations Liberal operatives took donations in return for furthering Nassif's interests, including harming Mr Elliott's reputation.
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