The son of Italian immigrants, Sidoti was raised in Sydney's inner west and educated at De La Salle College, Ashfield and the Ryde College of TAFE where he studied hospitality.[2] From 1992 to 2008, Sidoti ran a function centre in Five Dock together with his family,[6] and then was a part-time fruit merchant.[2]
Elected to Burwood Council in 2008, Sidoti served as mayor from 2009 up until the 2011 state election, when he stood down as mayor, remaining as a councillor.[6]
Political career
At the 2011 state election, Sidoti was elected with a swing of 19.4 points, and won the seat with 66.7 per cent of the two-party-preferred vote.[7] Sidoti's main opponent was mayor of the City of Canada Bay, Angelo Tsirekas, representing the Labor Party. At the 2015 state election, Sidoti increased his two-party-preferred margin by around 1.7 points. From 22 June 2011 to 6 March 2015, he chaired the Parliamentary Privileges and Ethics Committee and served as deputy co-chair of the Social Policy Committee. From 17 October 2015 to 23 January 2017, he was parliamentary secretary for Transport, Roads, Industry, Resources and Energy and, from 1 February 2017 to 23 March 2019, was the parliamentary secretary to Cabinet.[2][8]
On 17 September 2019, Sidoti stood down from his ministerial duties pending a potential investigation by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) into his property dealings.[10] On 3 March 2021, ICAC announced its intention to conduct a public inquiry into those dealings.[11] As a result, he resigned from the cabinet and moved to the crossbench as an independent.[12] In July 2022, ICAC found that Sidoti had engaged in serious corrupt conduct by using his position to influence local councillors to benefit his family’s property interests.[13] As of July 2022, the ICAC was now seeking advice whether to charge Sidoti with corruption.[14]
