The hearings took a dramatic turn on Tuesday when Berejiklian’s trusted former chief of staff,Sarah Cruickshank,revealed that the then-premier had misled her in a confidential discussion about the status of the relationship in mid-July 2018,when allegations about Maguire’s conduct first surfaced in an earlier ICAC operation.
Those hearings had been the first to reveal Maguire’s grubby attempts to monetise his parliamentary post by seeking back-door commissions on property deals.
That evening,after news of Maguire’s dealings broke on Friday,July 13,2018,Cruickshank had been relaxing at dinner when an urgent call came through from Berejiklian. There’d been a “historic” relationship with Maguire,she recalls Berejiklian telling her. But it had ended before Berejiklian ascended to the top job in January 2017.
Cruickshank was shocked,Berejiklian distressed. It was Berejiklian’s first break from work for more than 18 months and now she was having to deal with a scandal breaking over the heads of one of her MPs.
But as Cruickshank recalled it,Berejiklian’s chief concern was to alert her to the “historic” relationship in case “people had seen her out with Maguire”,or photos of such outings emerged.
It did not ring alarm bells for her,Cruickshank said,because she thought it all in the past. Likewise,she did not break Berejiklian’s confidence and share that information with others.