Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been one of NSW’s most successful premiers but her leadership will struggle to withstand Monday’s disappointing evidence about her links to disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire.
The issue is not about Ms Berejiklian’s personal life, which should be respected. Premiers, like all citizens, can have relationships with whomever they want. They are not to blame if their partners betray their trust.
But Ms Berejiklian failed to recognise some very real risks that Mr Maguire was engaging in exactly the kind of behaviour that ultimately triggered ICAC’s investigation into a breach of public trust and use of parliamentary facilities for personal benefit.
ICAC’s Operation Keppel has heard evidence over the past three weeks that Mr Maguire was between 2012 to 2018 secretly using his position as an MP to tout for business.
It has heard his activities included a cash-for-visas scheme, hiding his involvement behind a shelf company, and a series of lobbying deals with Sydney property developers where he would earn a success fee.
On at least two occasions, Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian about these lobbying activities in terms that suggested that he had a personal financial interest, but Ms Berejiklian said she did not want to know about them. He invited developers to meetings in the Premier’s waiting room, ICAC has heard.
Ms Berejiklian said she played no part in his schemes but, as Premier, she had a higher duty to make sure that her government was clean.
Even if these private conversations failed to stir her suspicions, it should have been clear after a separate ICAC investigation in 2018 forced Mr Maguire to resign that he was a political liability – let alone a personal one. The 2018 inquiry heard that year Mr Maguire was hunting for property deals for a “mega big” overseas property developer.
Ms Berejiklian took two days to release a statement deploring Mr Maguire’s conduct and announcing his resignation from the Liberal Party yet continued the relationship “as a friend” until a few weeks ago. It was in August that she was called to a private hearing at the ICAC and learnt the full extent of the allegations against him. She ended their association soon thereafter.
The question of whether Ms Berejiklian should continue as Premier is complex.
Nothing at the hearing so far suggests that Ms Berejiklian has done anything improper. She has not misled ICAC like her predecessor Barry O’Farrell, who quit because he failed to tell an ICAC hearing that he had received a $3000 bottle of wine from a developer.
Her performance as Premier since she took over from Mike Baird in 2017 has been very professional. She won a historic third election for the Coalition in the 2019 election and she has led the state’s highly effective response to COVID-19 with no-nonsense determination.
She has been a popular and respected leader. The last thing the state needs right now during a historic recession is a change of premier. It has been 15 years since a NSW premier has served out a full-term in office.
We have yet to hear from Mr Maguire and it is important to do so. But it's hard to see how his evidence will not be incredibly distracting for Ms Berejiklian and her government. She will struggle to maintain business-as-usual. She will also be open to political attack too, not least of all in the bearpit of the NSW Parliament, for displaying poor political judgment.
No one wants Ms Berejiklian’s premiership to end this way but, with deep regret, the Herald believes the writing is on the wall.
The Herald's editor Lisa Davies writes a weekly newsletter exclusively for subscribers. To have it delivered to your inbox, please sign up here.
Since the Herald was first published in 1831, the editorial team has believed it important to express a considered view on the issues of the day for readers, always putting the public interest first. Elsewhere, we strive to cover a diversity of views without endorsing any of them.
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2020-10-12 09:00:00Z
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