By Lucy Cormack
Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is maintaining her fierce denial that her secret relationship with disgraced ex-MP Daryl Maguire did not influence her public duties, rejecting an accusation of dishonesty as she ended two days of evidence to the corruption watchdog.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption on Monday completed its 11-day public inquiry into Ms Berejiklian and whether she breached the public trust or encouraged corrupt conduct during her relationship with the former member for Wagga Wagga.
Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian after the completion of the public inquiry into her conduct.Credit:Mark Kolbe/Getty Images
Outside the ICAC Ms Berejiklian said she had always put the public first “and it remains the case”. “And now I intend to get on with my life,” she said.
Ms Berejiklian told the inquiry she completely rejected any assertion that her feelings for the man she once loved and hoped to marry affected her duty to the public.
“What I felt for him was completely separate to what I did in terms of executing my responsibilities and I stand by that ever so strongly,” she said.
Earlier, Ms Berejiklian was forced to defend evidence she gave about the first time she told her then-chief of staff Sarah Cruickshank about the relationship with Mr Maguire on July 13, 2018.
Ms Berejiklian giving evidence to the ICAC before Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl, SC, (bottom right). Ms Berejiklian’s barrister Sophie Callan, SC, is pictured to the left.Credit:ICAC
It followed an accusation from the former staffer’s barrister Hugh White, who suggested Ms Berejiklian was “not being honest” about the discussion.
Ms Cruickshank gave evidence that Ms Berejiklian lied to her at the time by saying the relationship was historic when it was still ongoing, which Ms Berejiklian disputes.
“That’s a matter for her and what she remembers, and a matter for me and what I remember,” Ms Berejiklian said. “I’ve been honest in what I thought I remember.”
Ms Berejiklian said Ms Cruickshank told her to cease anything to do with Mr Maguire.
“I did not take that bit of advice, obviously,” Ms Berejiklian said.
The ICAC is also considering whether she breached the ministerial code of conduct by failing to report the relationship.
Ms Berejiklian has repeatedly insisted the relationship did not constitute a conflict of interest because she did not class it as being of “sufficient status,” describing Mr Maguire as being part of her “love circle”.
The probe has focused on multimillion-dollar grants given or promised to Mr Maguire’s electorate between 2015 and 2018 while the relationship was ongoing. Both Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire have given evidence the relationship continued until 2020.
Ms Berejiklian on Monday agreed she attended “perhaps thousands” of cabinet meetings as a minister and premier to make funding decisions, but she never felt obliged to report a conflict of interest when handling matters in Mr Maguire’s electorate.
Among grants being investigated by the ICAC was $10 million given to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga. It was later promised a further $20 million for a recital hall during a byelection, a project bureaucrats have told the ICAC did not “stack up”.
Gladys Berejiklian outside ICAC on Monday, and Daryl Maguire arriving for ICAC on October 20, 2020.Credit:Nick Moir/Rhett Wyman
The byelection in 2018 was triggered by Mr Maguire’s resignation after featuring in another corruption inquiry probing the former Canterbury City Council.
The ICAC has heard Mr Maguire told the then-premier he had been called to give evidence but insisted he had done nothing wrong.
In the days following his resignation Ms Berejiklian promised Mr Maguire she would “throw money at Wagga,” during the byelection, which she said was standard practice.
“Political parties will make announcements based on what they think is going to curry favour with the community,” she said.
Asked if there was a concern in her office the byelection was becoming a “buy-election”, she said every byelection had that concern.
“I don’t think it’s a surprise to anybody in and around government to know that we threw money at seats in order to keep them,” Ms Berejiklian said.
Over two days in the witness box an at times agitated Ms Berejiklian was asked to comment on multiple intercepted phone calls she had with Mr Maguire, including one in which he boasted of his attempt to earn a $1.5 million commission through a controversial land deal at Badgerys Creek in 2017.
Ms Berejiklian told the inquiry she never thought she needed to relay the conversation to the ICAC, even after it emerged the watchdog was examining Mr Maguire’s conduct in 2018.
In a 52-minute call on July 5, 2018 Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian he had been called to the Canterbury council probe. During the call Ms Berejiklian pressed him for information about his involvement and warned him against associating with people she considered “dodgy”.
Eight days later Mr Maguire made a damning admission to the ICAC that he had discussed with a local councillor about splitting potential commissions from a property developer for brokering land sales. No money ever changed hands.
Ms Berejiklian told the ICAC on Monday she subsequently assumed “something was awry” after Mr Maguire’s evidence, but said she trusted him when he denied wrongdoing.
“I racked my brain on the 13th of July. I looked back and spent many days thinking, ‘Is there anything? Did I know anything? Do I need to report anything?’ ... but I had nothing to report.”
Of the $1.5 million deal Mr Maguire had discussed in 2017, Ms Berejiklian said it was unlikely she “absorbed it” or was paying attention to the conversation.
Counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson suggested, by her assumption, Mr Maguire had let down the people of the state, the Liberal Party and his electorate, “but he had not done anything relevantly wrong”.
“Well, I knew there was a big cloud, but I didn’t know the extent of what was transpiring,” Ms Berejiklian said.
When she called Ms Cruickshank on the evening of July 13 to tell her about her relationship with Mr Maguire, Ms Berejiklian said she did so to assure her chief of staff she had no knowledge of corrupt conduct.
“That I didn’t know anything to report, and I didn’t have anything to provide to [the ICAC].”
Ms Berejiklian was also asked about comments in a 2018 phone call in which she told an irate Mr Maguire she got him $170 million for Wagga Wagga hospital in “five minutes” after earlier promising to “deal with it.”
She said the conversation was likely about how the funding was presented as a specific item in the budget papers, and “the money had already been agreed to by government”.
Lawyers representing all parties during the inquiry will now prepare written submissions relating to the evidence, before ICAC Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl, SC, determines her findings.
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