Not that he went soft on the woman who served as premier for nearly the entirety of the time he himself was deputy premier. But the matter- of- fact,at times subdued,way in which he delivered his evidence ran counter to his often fiery reputation.
Former deputy premier John Barilaro leaves the ICAC after giving evidence on Monday.Dominic Lorrimer
Like those who testified before him last week – particularly onetime ministerial colleague Stuart Ayres and former premier Mike Baird – Barilaro made no bones about the fact Berejiklian should have told colleagues of her relationship with her then boyfriend,Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.
Most particularly,he said,she should have not taken part in discussions by the high-powered expenditure review committee (ERC) – which as treasurer she chaired – in relation to funding two projects Maguire particularly championed in his electorate of Wagga Wagga.
Barilaro was a newly minted deputy premier,just a month in the post,when he took part in ERC’s deliberations in December 2016 to allocate $5.5 million to the Australian Clay Target Association to upgrade its headquarters in Wagga Wagga.
Berejiklian did not declare her association with Maguire then,nor subsequently when the government considered two separate stages of a multimillion-dollar grant to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music,also in Maguire’s electorate.
Barilaro recalled several “unusual” features of the clay target proposal:no funding source had been identified inside government when it first came before the ERC,the unusually expeditious way it was handled (Berejiklian had been instrumental in getting it rushed onto the ERC agenda before Christmas that year),and the fact that the cabinet committee rarely considered a project of that relatively small size as a standalone item.
He believed neither he nor his cabinet colleagues would have let it come before ERC in the way it did had they known of Berejiklian’s interest. They would have followed “other processes” to give them a “level of comfort” around handling it,he said,and Berejiklian would “not have been part of the conversation or debate”.
Similarly,the first phrase of the conservatorium proposal – a $10 million grant to relocate it – should also have been flagged as involving a potential conflict. However by the time the final stage of the conservatorium project had come before government – another $20 million for a recital hall – the conflict,he said,had disappeared because Maguire had by then resigned as MP.
Former NSW Deputy Premier John Barilaro told the ICAC Gladys Berejiklian should have disclosed her relationship with Daryl Maguire.
When pushed by Berejiklian’s counsel Sophie Callan SC,he granted that he’d sometimes made decisions on projects where relevant MP’s had been “friends” but he’d not considered there to be a conflict. “That’s a fair point” he conceded.
Barilaro’s evidence bolsters the case that Berejiklian should have outed the fact of her “close personal relationship” with Maguire to colleagues. But it’s hard to see how it puts her in any greater jeopardy than she was facing at the end of last week.
The Morning Edition newsletter is our guide to the day’s most important and interesting stories,analysis and insights.Sign up.