Berejiklian inquiry day seven as it happened:Former NSW premier’s chief of staff Sarah Cruickshank tells ICAC she knew of ‘historical’ relationship with Daryl Maguire years ago

Good afternoon and thank you for reading our live coverage of day seven of the ICAC’s hearing into former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and former Liberal MP for Wagga Wagga,Daryl Maguire.

The ICAC is investigating the circumstances in which the state government made multimillion-dollar grants or promises to two organisations in Mr Maguire’s electorate while he was in a secret relationship with Ms Berejiklian. The inquiry has heard the relationship started in 2015 and continued at least until 2018,with the pair remaining in contact until September last year.

The funding commitments were made between 2016 and 2018,when Ms Berejiklian was NSW treasurer and later premier. It is important to note that Ms Berejiklian has yet to give evidence in this phase of the inquiry and has denied wrongdoing. She has said that history will record that she acted in the best interests of the people of NSW.

The inquiry today heard bombshell evidence from Ms Berejiklian’s former chief of staff,Sarah Cruickshank. Here’s what you need to know:

Earlier today,two more former senior staffers to Ms Berejiklian gave evidence. They are not accused of wrongdoing. Their evidence was as follows:

The hearing resumes tomorrow at 9.30am with evidence from a NSW bureaucrat,Gary Barnes. He is not accused of wrongdoing.

The ICAC has adjourned until 9.30am tomorrow.

A NSW bureaucrat,Department of Regional NSW secretary Gary Barnes,will return to the witness box tomorrow. He is not accused of wrongdoing.

Sarah Cruickshank,a former chief of staff to then-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian,said her former boss always played by the book and she “never saw anything other than somebody who stuck by the rules”.

“She is very up front and very much full of integrity,” Ms Cruickshank said,which was part of the reason why she was “surprised” to be giving evidence at the ICAC.

She said there was never any time that she felt Ms Berejiklian was asking her to do something special for Wagga Wagga,the electorate of former NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

“A lesser person would have asked me to look at those things,” Ms Cruickshank said.

As the ICAC has heard,Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire were in a secret relationship between 2015 and 2018.

Ms Cruickshank gave surprise evidence earlier today that Ms Berejiklian told her in a phone call on July 13,2018,that she had been in a historical relationship with Mr Maguire.

The then-premier claimed the relationship had ended before she was appointed to the top job in January 2017,Ms Cruickshank said.

“It was about the optics,” Ms Cruickshank said of her concern about the relationship.

One of Ms Berejiklian’s barristers,Sophie Callan,SC,pressed Ms Cruickshank again about whether she had mis-remembered or misinterpreted what Ms Berejiklian said to her about the duration of the relationship.

“She was categorically clear with me;it was before she was premier,” Ms Cruickshank replied.

She said “the reality is” Ms Berejiklian told her in 2018 that it was a historical relationship that ended pre-January 2017,when in fact that was not the case.

Ms Berejiklian has yet to give evidence in the inquiry. She has denied all wrongdoing.

ICAC Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl,SC,who is presiding over the inquiry,asked former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian’s former chief of staff,Sarah Cruickshank,to elaborate on her evidence about when Ms Berejiklian told her she had been in a relationship with then NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

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Ms Cruickshank agreed that she believed Ms Berejiklian was being honest with her when she said in a July 2018 phone call that she had been in a “historical” relationship or friendship with Mr Maguire but it had ended before she became premier in January 2017.

The ICAC subsequently heard that the relationship started in 2015 and in fact continued until 2018.The pair remained in contact until later in 2020,the inquiry has heard.

“She’d lied to you?” Ms McColl said.

“That’s your word,Commissioner,but,yes,I,I did not know what ... the premier had said last year,” Ms Cruickshank replied.

Asked whether there was “any other description of it than a lie”,Ms Cruickshank said:“No,there probably isn’t. I’m just uncomfortable using the word. But I accept the word,yep.”

Ms Cruickshank agreed in her evidence that she was “surprised” when the ICAC heard the relationship had not ended before Ms Berejiklian became premier.

One of the barristers acting for Ms Berejiklian,Sophie Callan,SC,pressed Ms Cruickshank about whether it was simply her “impression” that the relationship was historical,rather than something Ms Berejiklian said to her. Ms Cruickshank denied this was the case.

“During that conversation or around that time,did Ms Berejiklian tell you she had never had reason to believe that Mr Maguire or Daryl had done anything untoward?” Ms Callan asked.

“Yes. She said that a number of times. I genuinely think she didn’t think Mr Maguire had done anythinguntoward.”

Sarah Cruickshank,former chief of staff to Gladys Berejiklian,is asked for more detail about the July 2018 conversation with Ms Berejiklian in which the then-NSW premier told her she had been in a “historical” relationship with the then NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

She said Ms Berejiklian called her during dinner on July 13,2018,after Mr Maguire had given evidence at an earlier ICAC inquiry.

“I don’t know if she said relationship or friendship,” Ms Cruickshank said.

“I left the conversation with the impression it was more than just a few dinners. I didn’t get the sense it was a full-blown intense relationship but I’m just reading that. It’s awkward talking about this.”

Ms Cruickshank said she was “very surprised and slightly mortified” after the call because she had “given some free character assessments of Mr Maguire” after his appearance at the ICAC.

The ICAC heard in October last year that the relationship between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire in fact started in 2015 and didn’t end until sometime in 2018. Ms Cruickshank said she was “surprised” when she heard this evidence.

Asked what she would have done differently if she had been aware of this at the time,Ms Cruickshank said:“I would have sat down with her and gone through whether or not there were implications for things she had done.”

She said that she would have told Mr Maguire that Ms Berejiklian should not be involved in decision-making in relation to his proposals and she should be kept at arm’s length.

But she said she had never seen anything to indicate favouritism on Ms Berejiklian’s part towards Mr Maguire.

Ms Cruickshank is taken to evidence she gave at a private hearing with the ICAC earlier this year.

She said at the time that her reaction would have been different if Ms Berejiklian had told her the relationship was ongoing,and she would have thought “how on earth can we have a by-election” when Ms Berejiklian had been dating the “fellow” whose resignation triggered the poll.

Ms Cruickshank said today that she can’t recall what she meant by that precise expression but said “it’s a different level of political controversy”. A current relationship “would then have become a focus” in light of the scandal surrounding Mr Maguire at the time.

She said it would have had “potential repercussions for the premier” if she was involved with someone who had a “cloud” hanging over them.

Ms Berejiklian has denied all wrongdoing and is slated to give evidence at the ICAC from Friday.

Sarah Cruickshank,former chief of staff to then-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian,is asked about emails in May 2017 in which Department of Regional NSW secretary Gary Barnes kept her up to date in relation to a multimillion-dollar proposal to upgrade the Australian Clay Target Association in Wagga Wagga.

The upgrade is another project that was backed by the then NSW Liberal MP for Wagga Wagga,Daryl Maguire,with whom Ms Berejiklian was then in a secret relationship. The gun club in his electorate was not owned by the government or local council.

Ms Berejiklian has yet to give evidence and denies all wrongdoing.

Ms Cruickshank said she can’t recall any specific “or even passing” interest in the gun club at this time and “that remains the case today”.

Ms Cruickshank could not recall why she said in an email response to Mr Barnes:“Hi Gary. Thanks for the
updates on the pigeons (!)”

She also couldn’t remember why she used an exclamation mark but agreed “it could well have been surprise on my part that I was getting the email”.

As we have noted previously,former NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire was forced to quit politics in July 2018 after giving evidence at an earlier ICAC inquiry. This triggered a by-election in Wagga Wagga.

At this stage,the relationship between the then-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and Mr Maguire,which started in 2015 and ended sometime in 2018,was not publicly known.

During the by-election,the state government announced $20 million in funding for a recital hall for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga.

Sarah Cruickshank,who was then Ms Berejiklian’s chief of staff,said Ms Berejiklian would have endorsed that announcement,although she was not the MP who announced it.

Asked whether Mr Maguire was consulted on that by-election promise,Ms Cruickshank said:“I don’t know;I’d be surprised if he was. He certainly was a proponent though.”

She described Mr Maguire’s advocacy style as “very strident”.

Ms Berejiklian is expected to give evidence at the ICAC from Friday this week. She has denied wrongdoing and has said history will record that she will act in the best interests of the people of NSW.

The ICAC has previously heard that the state government’s $20 million funding commitment,which followed a $10 million grant for the conservatorium to relocate its premises,was in the nature of a “reservation” of funds. This meant it wasn’t guaranteed.

NSW bureaucrats subsequently determined that there were deficiencies in the business plan and the money has not yet been handed over.

The ICAC is investigating the circumstances in which this funding announcement was made in the context of the Berejiklian-Maguire relationship. Ms Berejiklian has denied all wrongdoing and has yet to give evidence at the inquiry.

The ICAC has heard the then NSW premier,Gladys Berejiklian,issued a statement about then NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire two days after he gave evidence at an earlier ICAC inquiry in July 2018.

Ms Berejiklian said in the statement on July 15 that she was “shocked by the events of Friday and I spoke to Mr Maguire late that afternoon to express in the strongest possible terms my deep disappointment”.

As the inquiry has just heard,Ms Berejiklian had disclosed to her then chief of staff,Sarah Cruickshank,on July 13 that she had been in a relationship with Mr Maguire.

Ms Cruickshank said the relationship was described to her as “historical” and not ongoing,and she was led to believe it had ended before Ms Berejiklian became premier in January 2017.

Ms Berejiklian told the ICAC last year that the relationship started in 2015 and did not end until 2018.

Ms Cruickshank said that staff were told after Mr Maguire’s appearance at the ICAC in 2018 that if they had “things to report about Mr Maguire they should”.

She said that she subsequently learnt that two separate reports were given by two different staff members as a result of that.

In a briefing for the then-premier,which the inquiry heard was annotated by her in July 2018,the Department of Premier and Cabinet advised Ms Berejiklian that it had been contacted by one staff member about information that might have been relevant to the earlier ICAC inquiry. It had also been informed that “there may be former staff members who may also hold relevant information”.

“DPC has advised the staff member that the information should be promptly provided to ICAC,” the briefing said.

Under recommendations,the department said:“Note that DPC has been informed that a Ministerial advisor holds information that may be relevant to[the earlier inquiry] ... and that the Secretary of DPC will provide that information to ICAC.”

Sarah Cruickshank,a former chief of staff to then-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian,has started giving evidence at the ICAC. She is appearing as a witness and has not been accused of wrongdoing.

Ms Cruickshank was seconded from the Department of Premier and Cabinet,where she works now,to be Ms Berejiklian’s chief of staff. She was in the role between January 2017 and early last year.

Ms Cruickshank has given explosive evidence that she first became aware of what she believed was a “historical” relationship between Ms Berejiklian and former NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire in 2018,after he gave evidence on July 13 that year at an earlier ICAC inquiry.

This is years before the relationship came to light at the ICAC in October last year.

“I received a phone call from the premier asking me to call her,” Ms Cruickshank said. She recalled that she was at dinner at the time,on the evening of July 13.

Ms Cruickshank said Ms Berejiklian was concerned that people might have seen her out with Mr Maguire and her office might receive questions from the media about whether the pair were close or friends.

It was described to her as a historical relationship or friendship before Ms Berejiklian became NSW premier in January 2017,and not a relationship that had continued. Ms Cruickshank is not sure whether the word relationship was used.

On that basis,Ms Cruickshank did not believe that any disclosures needed to be made.

Ms Berejiklian told the ICAC last year that the relationship started in 2015 and continued until 2018.

Good afternoon and thank you for reading our live blog of day seven of the ICAC’s public inquiry into former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

The corruption watchdog is examining two multimillion-dollar grants or funding promises made by the state government between 2016 and 2018 when Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire were in a secret relationship. At the time,Ms Berejiklian was the NSW treasurer and later the premier.

That relationship first came to light in public in October last year when Ms Berejiklian gave evidence at the ICAC for a first time. She has yet to give evidence in this stage of the inquiry and has denied all wrongdoing.

If you are just joining us now,two former senior staffers to Ms Berejiklian gave evidence this morning. They are not accused of wrongdoing. Their evidence was as follows:

The hearing will resume at about 1.45pm with evidence from Ms Berejiklian’s former chief of staff,Sarah Cruickshank. She is not accused of wrongdoing.