And they’ve demonstrated just how untenable it would have been for her to have tried to remain in state politics after the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s announcement that she herself was under direct investigation.
Recordings of private calls between Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire were played in the ICAC hearing on Thursday.Kate Geraghty
In a recording played to the commission on Thursday,Berejiklan was heard talking to Maguire barely two weeks after evidence had surfaced of his wrongdoing in an earlier ICAC inquiry on July 13,2018.
With his wheeling and dealing laid bare,she’d publicly scolded him and demanded his resignation as the MP for Wagga Wagga.
Yet it was a very different tone she adopted with him in private a fortnight later,on July 30.
In what appeared to be an attempt to mollify him,and with a byelection looming,she promised she would “throw money” at Wagga Wagga – where he had been MP for nearly 20 years – adding,“don’t you worry about that”.
Daryl Maguire has told the NSW anti-corruption watchdog that he and Gladys Berejiklian were in love,and had discussed getting married and having a child together.
When he complained that bureaucrats had knocked out parts of his funding wish-list,including a stadium for the city,she shot back “but I can overrule them”.
Against the backdrop of the past 10 days of evidence,with witness after witness expressing the view that Berejiklian should have made known to colleagues her relationship with Maguire so any perceived conflict of interest between her public duty and private attachment could be “managed”,this secretly recorded exchange is dynamite.
In another exchange,Maguire advised Berejiklian on how to manage the aftermath of his forced resignation,urging her to “kick the shit out of me”.
On Thursday morning,Berejiklian’s barrister Sophie Callan,SC,made a valiant attempt to shield her from any further public probing about the exact nature of her relationship with Maguire,arguing the evidence should be heard behind closed doors.
It would cause “humiliation and harm” to “plumb the depths” of the former premier’s private life in an open hearing,Callan asserted. Nor would it serve a public purpose.
This was swiftly shot down by the counsel assisting the commission,Scott Robertson,who pointed out that not only was the nature of the relationship at the very heart of the ICAC’s inquiry,but it was Berejiklian herself who’d stoked public fascination in the topic with a series of interviews a year ago,in which she sought to portray herself as the victim of love gone wrong.
Assistant commissioner Ruth McColl agreed with Robertson. The show would go on.
Robertson dealt with questions about the relationship swiftly,surgically and without prurience. “Yes”,Maguire said in a series of clipped answers.
He had been in love with Berejiklian and she with him. She had given him a key to her North Sydney home and never asked for it back. They had been on holidays together,considered marriage and a child. There had been “physical intimacy”. Sometimes there had been “spats” but neither had ever tried to call it off between 2015 and 2018.
Indeed it’s clear contact between them continued into 2020,shortly before Berejiklian’s sensational admission before the ICAC a year ago of a “close personal relationship”.
Callan did her best to put a less definite complexion on things,drawing acknowledgements from Maguire that there had not been a common diary,nor shared finances,nor meetings with each other’s families.
Nonetheless,the overall picture shot holes in Berejiklian’s assertion that the relationship was not of “sufficient status” to have warranted declaration to at least someone else inside government.
Maguire’s insouciance in the witness box was notable. At one stage he even cracked a joke when McColl remarked that his screen appeared to have frozen. “It’s quite warm here,commissioner,” he chuckled.
He readily agreed to Robertson’s proposition that he’d “encouraged” Berejiklian to take a “close interest” in his pet projects in Wagga Wagga,the upgrading of the headquarters of the Australian Clay Target Association and a relocation and new recital hall for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music,both of which had struggled to find favour inside the public service.
Maguire agreed he had kept Berejiklian,first as treasurer,and then as premier,“up to date” with both projects. When bureaucratic wheels were grinding too slowly for his liking,“I kept her informed … she needed to know the rubbish that was going on”.
He appeared unrepentant about his lobbying of her – or anyone else for that matter. He described pushing himself into political offices wherever he could.
He happily adopted former deputy premier John Barilaro’s description of him as a “pain in the arse”,and labelled himself a “serial pest”.
He agreed with Callan that he would text and lobby many others apart from Berejiklian,boasting he had access to every minister. But he also agreed with Robertson’s proposition that he had more access to Berejiklian than other ministers.
It was commissioner McColl who nailed home the key point. Berejiklian was the most powerful in the state,was she not? Yes,he agreed. And had the power to make the money flow? Yes,Maguire said.
On which sober note,the proceedings adjourned.
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