Summary
- Disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire is facing a third day of questioning at the ICAC inquiry into his possible misuse of his position for financial gain from 10am, after a transcript of his private evidence was inadvertently uploaded to the corruption watchdog's website late yesterday.
- Mr Maguire yesterday admitted letting a property developer friend, Jo Alha, "drop in" to Premier Gladys Berejiklian's office in NSW Parliament after the two men were drinking in his office.
- Yesterday's questioning at the inquiry also turned to Mr Maguire's former relationship with Ms Berejiklian.
- The ICAC also heard a tapped phone call in which Mr Maguire advised his friend Mr Alha to write to the then-planning minister, Anthony Roberts, about his grievances and "cc [copy] the Premier", adding that he "will give it to her".
- Mr Maguire also admitted that he believed at one stage he could make "up to" $1.5 million from helping racing heir and landowner Louise Raedler Waterhouse sell a parcel of land at Badgerys Creek near the planned second Sydney airport.
Watch live: ICAC grills Daryl Maguire
Disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire is being grilled for a third day at the ICAC about his business dealings while in office and his former relationship with Premier Gladys Berejiklian. You can watch it live here.
Latest updates
Watch LIVE: Premier gives COVID-19 update
By Ben Grubb
Premier Gladys Berejiklian is providing a COVID-19 update. We expect she'll be asked about this morning's evidence at ICAC. You can watch live below:
Maguire tried to avoid 'fixing Berejiklian with knowledge'
Disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire is asked where there was a line at which he sought not to "fix" Premier Gladys Berejiklian with "knowledge" of his business dealings as they discussed his activities.
"I think that's correct," Mr Maguire says.
Maguire agrees Berejiklian 'didn't want to know'
The ICAC has taken a keen interest in a phone call between disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire and Premier Gladys Berejiklian in September 2017, in which Ms Berejiklian said "I don't need to know about that bit" in response to Mr Maguire speaking about a potential Badgerys Creek business deal.
Asked by counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, if there was a point at which he stopped giving Ms Berejiklian details that might cause her to stake steps in relation to a matter, Mr Maguire said he "limited the information I gave her" if he thought it would "cause her difficulties".
Daryl Maguire arriving at the ICAC on Friday.Credit:Rhett Wyman
"Were you concerned that if you shared a little bit more information ... she might need to take action in the exercise of her public functions?" Mr Robertson asked.
"Yes, I would have been concerned that it would cause an issue for her," Mr Maguire said.
He later explained to Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl that he meant conflicts of interest "and all of that kind of stuff".
Asked by Mr Robertson if there was a "line at which you wouldn't fix her with knowledge", Mr Maguire said: "I think that's correct."
"She didn't want to know?" Mr Robertson said.
"Well, yes," Mr Maguire said.
Premier's barrister takes aim at ICAC
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian's barrister, Arthur Moses, SC, has told the corruption watchdog that it should not be a "forum for a person's reputation to be the subject of question marks" without a proper basis.
Arthur Moses SC.Credit:Louise Kennerly
The ICAC's Assistant Commissioner, Ruth McColl, describes Mr Moses' submission as "extremely elliptical" and says "I don't think it requires a response at this stage".
Leak compromised Premier's privacy and security, ICAC told
The ICAC's Assistant Commissioner, Ruth McColl, has apologised to Premier Gladys Berejiklian and former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire after the corruption watchdog inadvertently published a transcript of Mr Maguire's evidence wgiven in private on Thursday.
The evidence concerned the nature and extent of the five-year private relationship between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire, which ended in about September this year. Sydney barrister Arthur Moses, SC, acting for Ms Berejiklian said the publication of the material amounted to a "violation of my client's privacy and her security".
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer
The Assistant Commissioner said the ICAC would hold an internal investigation into the circumstances surrounding the publication of the transcript and had also referred the matter to the independent ICAC Inspector, Sydney barrister Bruce McClintock, SC.
Mr McClintock told the Herald on Friday morning that he had received a complaint from the Premier's legal representatives and he would consider that complaint.
ICAC not holding 'public trial' into relationship
The ICAC's public hearings have revealed NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire were in a secret five-year relationship – but where does it draw the line in assessing what the public needs to know?
The corruption watchdog has used private hearings to ask the pair about particularly sensitive details of their former relationship. Counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, said yesterday that "this commission should not conduct something in the nature of a public trial as to the nature and extent of the relationship between these two individuals".
Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire. Credit:Dominic Lorrimerc, Supplied
Unfortunately, this commitment to preserving at least some of the pair's privacy was undermined yesterday when a transcript of Mr Maguire's private evidence was inadvertently published on the ICAC's website for about half an hour.
I have written a short story on privacy and the public interest in this inquiry and you can read it here.
Taxpayers foot bill for Maguire at ICAC
In case you missed it yesterday, the Herald's investigative reporter Kate McClymont revealed taxpayers are picking up the tab for disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire's legal costs at the ICAC, and he is also receiving a pension of $80,000.
This is lower than the usual parliamentary pension received by former MPs because a lump sum of Mr Maguire's entitlements has already been paid to his former wife as part of the couple's property settlement.
Daryl Maguire arrives at the ICAC this morning.Credit:Rhett Wyman
No findings of corruption have been made against Mr Maguire, who quit parliament in July 2018 after allegations against him surfaced in an earlier corruption inquiry into Canterbury Council.
Should Mr Maguire later be convicted of a serious offence he will be required to repay his legal costs for ICAC plus interest.
What to expect today
The ICAC hearing will kick off at 10am. Here is what you should expect:
- The corruption watchdog is likely delve further into the secret five-year relationship between disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire and Premier Gladys Berejiklian, and what Mr Maguire told the premier about his business dealings while in office. Ms Berejiklian has staunchly denied wrongdoing and suggested tapped phone calls in 2017 in which she tells Mr Maguire she doesn't "need to know" about some deals reflected her lack of interest in the matters rather than wilful blindness.
- The Office of the Inspector of the ICAC, Sydney barrister Bruce McClintock, SC, is expected to confirm he will look into the circumstances in which a transcript of private evidence given by Mr Maguire yesterday about his relationship with Ms Berejiklian was accidentally published on the ICAC's website for about half an hour. The corruption watchdog had been at pains not to hold a "public trial" into the pair's relationship but its attempt to protect sensitive details from being published was undermined yesterday by the release of the transcript, the contents of which are now suppressed.
- Ms Berejiklian will continue to come under political pressure to step down from the top job pending the outcome of the inquiry. NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham, a member of the state's upper house, went further this morning and told Seven's Sunrise program the Liberal leader's position was now "untenable".
- The ICAC may conclude public hearings today if the hearing goes to schedule, but there is a possibility it will run over time.
Stay with us for the latest from the ICAC and State Parliament.
'What have you got for sale this week, Daryl?'
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian told the ICAC on Monday that former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, with whom she was in a secret five-year relationship, was "obsessed" with his financial situation. The ICAC has already heard about a series of business ventures in which he was involved while in politics.
Urban affairs reporter Angus Thompson has now spoken to Wagga Wagga businessman and former political aspirant Julian McLaren, a former business associate of the disgraced MP. Mr McLaren, who is not accused of wrongdoing, said he visited the then MP in his parliamentary office in 2014 and Mr Maguire had an array of packaged electronics that he'd brought back from China.
Daryl Maguire arrives at the ICAC on Friday.Credit:Rhett Wyman
He said he saw one man, who he believed was a parliamentarian but did not recognise, walk into Mr Maguire's office and ask, "What have you got for sale this week, Daryl?"
Mr McLaren said: "The familiarity is what shocked me."
He said he never saw any purchases take place, and no MP has been accused of any wrongdoing.
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2020-10-15 23:48:00Z
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