The ICAC report includes explosive details of tapped phone calls between Gladys Berejiklian,then NSW premier,and her then-partner and Wagga Wagga Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.
In a call on Valentine’s Day 2018,six months before Maguire would resign after giving evidence at a separate ICAC inquiry,the pair had a conversation in which she told Maguire that “normally you’re the boss and it’s hard when we have to switch it around”.
She refers to Maguire using an Armenian term of affection,Hokis.
“Yeah,but I am the boss,even when you’re the premier,” Maguire replied. He added that “Glad,even when you are the premier,I am the boss,alright.”
“Yes,I know,” she replied.
Berejiklian told the ICAC during a private hearing that she was attempting to make Maguire “feel that because I was the boss during the day ... I wouldn’t necessarily be exercising that relationship in the private relationship”.
The ICAC concluded that “while it may not have been,as Ms Berejiklian submitted,her real view of the dynamic between them,her concern to address what she perceived as Mr Maguire’s insecurities can,as a matter of human experience,be expected to have manifested itself in a continuing desire to assuage his feelings and support him to the best of her ability”.
“That would include supporting him bringing to fruition two Wagga Wagga projects for which he was a fervent advocate,” the ICAC said.
The inquiry heard Berejiklian also referred to Maguire in a text message in April 2018 as “my family”.