The ICAC hearing has resumed after the lunch break and former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro is back in the witness box.
As noted throughout the blog,he’s giving evidence as a witness and is not accused of wrongdoing.
Mr Barilaro has been asked again about the circumstances in which the government signed off in December 2016 on $5.5 million in funding for an upgrade of the Australian Clay Target Association in Wagga Wagga.
He agreed that Gladys Berejiklian,who was then NSW treasurer and chair of the government’s expenditure review committee,made decisions about what to put on the ERC agenda.
Ms Berejiklian supported the proposal enough to put it on the agenda,he agreed.
Asked if she was also supportive of the substance of the proposal,Mr Barilaro said:“I’m not sure about that.”
He can’t recall the input of the then-treasurer during the discussion of the proposed grant.
The ICAC is investigating the circumstances in which the government made a conditional grant of $5.5 million to the association while Ms Berejiklian was in a relationship with the then NSW Liberal MP for Wagga Wagga,Daryl Maguire,who supported the proposal.
Ms Berejiklian has denied wrongdoing and will give evidence at the inquiry later this week.
Mr Barilaro is taken to his evidence at a private hearing at the ICAC on September 10,2021.
During that hearing,he was asked if Ms Berejiklian was supportive of the agenda item during the meeting of the expenditure review committee on December 16,2016. Mr Barilaro agreed.
Mr Barilaro has told the ICAC today that his evidence has been consistent. He agreed that Ms Berejiklian’s support for putting the funding application on the ERC agenda was an indication that she was supportive of it.
Mr Barilaro said that if the relationship between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire was known at the time,her cabinet colleagues would have expected the “treasurer would have excused herself from the debate”.
He said in his private hearing that if the relationship had been known “I would not have supported the agenda item,I believe my colleagues would not have supported the agenda item”.
He said today that they would have handled the process in a different way.