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  • Gladys Berejiklian to start giving evidence at the ICAC today
  • The evidence so far
  • Why is the ICAC investigating Gladys Berejiklian?

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Watch live: day ten of the ICAC’s inquiry

The ICAC is hearing today from a central figure in its investigation, former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. She has denied all wrongdoing.

You can watch the hearing live here from 10am.

Berejiklian arrives at the ICAC in Sydney

A smiling former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has arrived at the ICAC’s headquarters in Sydney. Her evidence is due to start at 10am today.

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and her barrister, Sophie Callan, SC, arrive at the ICAC in Sydney on Friday.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

It is anticipated that her evidence will not finish today and that she will return to the witness box on Monday.

Gladys Berejiklian to start giving evidence at the ICAC today

The ICAC will hear today from former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian.

She is a central figure in the investigation, dubbed Operation Keppel, and has not given evidence in public since last year. The then-premier appeared at a private hearing at the ICAC on September 18 this year.

Ms Berejiklian will be grilled about the circumstances in which the state government granted or promised millions of dollars to two organisations in the Wagga Wagga electorate of then state Liberal MP Daryl Maguire while she was in a secret relationship him.

Gladys Berejiklian announced her resignation on Friday October 1. She has denied wrongdoing.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

The decisions were made between 2016 and 2018, when Ms Berejiklian was treasurer (from April 2015) and premier (from January 2017).

She has denied all wrongdoing and maintains that history will show she acted in the best interests of the people of NSW.

Mr Maguire gave evidence yesterday that he was in a relationship with Ms Berejiklian between 2015 and shortly before September 2020, when the ICAC started public hearings in the first phase of this inquiry. At that stage, Ms Berejiklian was not a focus of the investigation.

Ms Berejiklian had asked Mr Maguire to quit politics in July 2018 following his evidence at an earlier corruption inquiry.

She told the ICAC in October last year that she did not cut off contact with him until September 13 last year. Mr Maguire was “in a very bad state” after she asked him to resign from Parliament, she said, and “after having known him for 15 years, I felt that I should check on his welfare and, therefore, for that reason, I maintained that association for that time”.

The evidence so far

Over the past two weeks, the ICAC has heard from 12 people who were working in the bureaucracy or in politics when the state government made multimillion-dollar grants or funding promises to two organisations in the Wagga Wagga electorate of then NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

The funding decisions were made between 2016 and 2018, when Mr Maguire was in a secret relationship with Gladys Berejiklian. Ms Berejiklian was treasurer from April 2015 and premier from January 2017.

Daryl Maguire and Gladys Berejiklian.Credit:ICAC, Nick Moir

Former NSW premier Mike Baird, former deputy premier John Barilaro and the deputy leader of the NSW Liberals, Trade and Industry Minister Stuart Ayres, all gave evidence at the inquiry.

All described the relationship between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire, which was not known to them until it was revealed during evidence at the ICAC last year, as a conflict of interest. However, Mr Ayres also said he couldn’t see how Ms Berejiklian or Mr Maguire would “derive a private benefit”.

Mr Barilaro told the ICAC that “I’ve seen many of us declare conflicts of interest for just knowing someone because we worked with someone or have been an associate with someone, let alone being in a relationship”.

Maguire’s evidence

The ICAC heard yesterday from Mr Maguire, who is a key target of the investigation. Ms Berejiklian is the final person to give evidence in the inquiry and will start giving evidence today. She has denied all wrongdoing and said history will show she acted in the best interests of the people of NSW.

Mr Maguire admitted yesterday that he was a “pain in the arse” and lobbied vociferously for government funding for the Australian Clay Target Association, a gun club in his electorate, and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music. This included making representations to Ms Berejiklian.

Former member for Wagga Wagga Daryl Maguire.Credit:Janie Barrett

The inquiry has previously heard Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire were in a secret relationship between 2015 and at least 2018. Mr Maguire said yesterday that as far as he was concerned the relationship did not end until 2020, shortly before the ICAC commenced the first round of public hearings in this inquiry.

The relationship only came to light in public when Ms Berejiklian gave evidence at the ICAC in October last year. Contact between the pair did not cease until September 13 last year, she said last year.

Yesterday, the following evidence came to light:

  • The ICAC played a series of tapped phone calls between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire. In an October 2017 call, Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian: “Wagga is the centre of the universe, I’ve always said it. Keep listening to me and it’ll be like the blazing star of the southern universe, I tell ya. That’s why we need a stadium. That’s why we need a conservatorium. That’s why we need the things that Sydney’s got.”
  • In a May 2018 call, Ms Berejiklian told Mr Maguire “we ticked off your conservatorium the other day, so that’s a done deal now”. This was a reference for $10 million in funding for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga to move from Charles Sturt University to a new government-owned site in his electorate.
  • After he quit politics in 2018, Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian in a July 30 call to “throw money at Wagga”. “I’ll throw money at Wagga, lots of it, don’t you worry about that,” Ms Berejiklian replied. She said Mr Maguire had already told her the “top three things” he wanted for the electorate. Mr Maguire suggested one project, a stadium, was being blocked by bureaucrats and Ms Berejiklian said: “I can overrule them”.
  • Mr Maguire admitted that he attempted in 2017 to get confidential information from state MPs about land in Cawdor in the Wollondilly Shire to assist his property broker friend William Luong. There is no suggestion Ms Berejiklian was involved. Mr Maguire told the ICAC he had “no agreement” that he would receive a commission from Mr Luong but it was a possibility.
  • He also agreed that he lobbied Ms Berejiklian and others about proposals for the state government to spend some $35 million on projects for the Australian Clay Target Association and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music. Both are private organisations. The gun club ultimately received $5.5 million to upgrade its facilities while the conservatorium received $10 million to relocate premises with a further $20 million promised (but ultimately not delivered) for a new recital hall.
  • Mr Maguire admitted that G8way International, a company through which he pursued a range of commercial opportunities, assisted the Australian Clay Target Association to buy furniture. But he said he had “nothing to do with it” and it was an associate of his who was involved in helping the association. Asked if his associate received a commission, Mr Maguire said: “No one works for nothing, Mr Robertson.” “Exactly,” counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, replied.

The ex chief of staff’s evidence

On Tuesday, the inquiry heard bombshell evidence from Sarah Cruickshank, who was Ms Berejiklian’s former chief of staff from January 2017 to early last year.

She said the then-premier called her on July 13, 2018, after Mr Maguire had given evidence at a separate ICAC inquiry, and told her she had been in a “historical” relationship with Mr Maguire that ended before she became premier in January 2017.

“I left the conversation with the impression it was more than just a few dinners,” Ms Cruickshank said. “I didn’t get the sense it was a full-blown intense relationship but I’m just reading that.”

Sarah Cruickshank, former chief of staff to Gladys Berejiklian, outside the ICAC on Tuesday. She is not accused of wrongdoing.Credit:Janie Barrett

Ms Berejiklian would later tell the ICAC that the relationship continued well into her time as premier.

Asked by ICAC Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl, SC, if Ms Berejiklian had “lied” to her, Ms Cruickshank said: “That’s your word, Commissioner, but, yes, I, I did not know what … the premier had said last year.”

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

Ms Cruickshank said that if she had known the relationship was ongoing she would have “sat down with [the premier] … and gone through whether or not there were implications for things she had done”.

She said 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 Ms Cruickshank also said this was about “optics” and she had not seen evidence of Ms Berejiklian favouring proposals from Mr Maguire.

The evidence of Mike Baird’s former adviser

The director of strategy to then-premier Mike Baird, Nigel Blunden, told the ICAC he was sceptical in late 2016 about the urgent funding proposal for the gun club and the “lack of an appropriate business case”.

    In a memo to Mr Baird on December 12, 2016, two days before the expenditure review committee signed off on funding, Mr Blunden wrote: “As Joel Goodsen [sic, a reference to Tom Cruise’s character in the 1983 film Risky Business] famously said, sometimes you gotta say WTF.”

    Former NSW premier Mike Baird arrives at the ICAC on Wednesday.Credit:Louise Kennerley

    He told Mr Baird in the memo that “increased tourism accounts for 97% [of] the forecast benefits (so it’s suss),” the business case had not been subjected to independent review, and there was no feasibility study.

    Mr Blunden also told Mr Baird the proponents should “go away, test the assumptions, verify the business case and then come back when it’s solid”, as Mr Blunden suggested earlier in December, but “Daryl fired up and Gladys put it back on” the agenda.

    The evidence of the bureaucrats

    A series of current and former NSW bureaucrats gave evidence at the inquiry, including Michael Toohey, a director in the NSW Office of Sport, and his former boss, Paul Doorn.

    The men told the ICAC about the circumstances in which the office, which is a state government agency, was asked by Mr Ayres’ office to prepare an urgent funding submission for the gun club in late 2016. The proposal was regarded by both men as a low priority that had an insufficient business case. Mr Ayres is not accused of wrongdoing.

    Paul Doorn departs the ICAC after giving evidence today. He is not accused of wrongdoing.Credit:Janie Barrett

    Mr Toohey said it would have been “absolutely” relevant to him to know that Mr Maguire was in a relationship with the then-treasurer at the time he was advocating for the proposal. Mr Doorn said it would have been a “red flag”.

      Office of Sport director Michael Toohey arrives at the ICAC on Monday.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

      Department of Regional NSW deputy secretary Chris Hanger and his boss, Gary Barnes, also gave evidence.

      Mr Hanger told the ICAC that the secret relationship between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire was a potential conflict of interest and it would have changed the way he approached his work on the two proposed grants involving Mr Maguire’s electorate.

      Mr Hanger said that if he had known about the relationship, he would have “put in place ways of identifying and managing … conflicts of interest” and notified his senior managers.

      Chris Hanger (centre), deputy secretary in the Department of Regional NSW, outside the ICAC. Mr Hanger is not accused of wrongdoing.Credit:Kate Geraghty

      As noted above, the ICAC has heard that a second business case for the gun club, prepared in 2017 after the $5.5 million grant was made conditional on a satisfactory business case, estimated the benefit cost ratio for the project was below one (0.88), which was too low to justify state agency Infrastructure NSW backing the plan.

      A subsequent version of the business case put the ratio at 1.1, which was high enough to justify funding.

      “As you understood it, a request was made after that first round of assessment that showed a BCR of less than 1 to do further work to see if that less than 1 could become a 1 or more than 1, correct?” counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, asked Mr Hanger.

      “That’s correct,” he replied.

      “As you understood it, that request was a request made by the premier herself, correct?” Mr Robertson said.

      “Yes,” Mr Hanger replied.

      Department of Regional NSW secretary Gary Barnes, right, outside the ICAC on Wednesday. Mr Barnes is not accused of wrongdoing.Credit:Janie Barrett

      Mr Barnes said he understood in 2017 that Mr Maguire “had the ear” of Ms Berejiklian after a discussion with a staffer in Mr Barilaro’s office.

      Had he been aware of the relationship in 2017, he said he would have sought advice “immediately” about whether it created any issues in relation to the gun club and conservatorium projects. He told the ICAC he believed Ms Berejiklian, and not just her staff, had an interest in both projects at the time.

      Counsel assisting the ICAC’s opening address

      In case you missed it last week, counsel assisting the ICAC in its inquiry, Scott Robertson, delivered an opening address on the first day of the public hearings. He gave a more detailed guide to the matters being investigated by the corruption watchdog.

      Counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, arrives at the ICAC inquiry in Sydney on Tuesday.Credit:Janie Barrett

      Conflict of interest

      Mr Robertson said the watchdog is investigating whether former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian exhibited the “high standards of probity” that she set for herself and her ministers when she failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest arising from her secret relationship with former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.

      The ICAC has heard that relationship started in 2015 and continued until at least July 2018. Mr Maguire gave evidence yesterday that the relationship didn’t end until 2020, shortly before the first round of public hearings in this inquiry in September. Ms Berejiklian has already conceded that she did not cut contact with Mr Maguire until September 13 last year.

      Under the NSW ministerial code of conduct, a minister “must not knowingly conceal a conflict of interest from the Premier”.

      The code says “a conflict of interest arises in relation to a Minister if there is a conflict between the public duty and the private interest of the Minister, in which the Minister’s private interest could objectively have the potential to influence the performance of their public duty.”

      Gladys Berejiklian prepares to announce her resignation earlier this month. She denies all wrongdoing.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer

      Mr Robertson said “private interest” did not only mean financial interests. It may include cases “where a minister’s attention or concern is particularly engaged in relation to a person by reason of their personal association or connection with them – whether that association or connection be one of friendship, enmity, family relation or romantic involvement”.

      The ICAC is investigating events from 2012 to 2018, during which Ms Berejiklian was NSW treasurer (from April 2015) and later premier (from January 2017), and involved in making decisions about multimillion-grants to organisations in Mr Maguire’s electorate.

      Duty to report

      Under section 11 of the ICAC Act, a NSW minister and other public officials have a duty to report any matter that the person suspects on reasonable grounds concerns or may concern corrupt conduct.

      Mr Robertson said the ICAC had no records available to it to show Ms Berejiklian made any report of suspected corrupt conduct involving Mr Maguire to a head of agency or to the corruption watchdog.

      Ms Berejiklian forced Mr Maguire to resign as a parliamentary secretary on July 13, 2018, after he gave evidence at a separate corruption inquiry. Days later, on July 21, she announced he would quit State Parliament altogether.

      But Ms Berejiklian told a private hearing at the ICAC on September 18 this year that she did not suspect Mr Maguire of corruption when she asked for his resignation in 2018. “I was in shock. I didn’t know what to think…. I hadn’t read what was happening. I can’t remember what I thought at that time,” she said.

      Mr Robertson said the watchdog is investigating whether it should accept that evidence.

      Gladys Berejiklian and former MP Daryl Maguire were in a secret relationship between 2015 and 2018.Credit:AAP, Janie Barrett

      ‘Allow or encourage’ corrupt conduct

      Mr Robertson said the watchdog is also investigating whether Ms Berejiklian engaged in conduct that was “liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct by Mr Maguire”. The ICAC heard last year that Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian in some tapped phone calls about his business dealings, and in one call she said: “I don’t need to know about that bit.”

      Mr Robertson said “a question arises as to whether Ms Berejiklian’s apparent inaction in relation to the information provided to her by Mr Maguire was apt to allow or encourage Mr Maguire to engage in corrupt conduct”.

      Government grants

      The ICAC is investigating the conduct of Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire in relation to $35 million in state government grants or promises made to the Australian Clay Target Association and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in his electorate when Ms Berejiklian was NSW treasurer and later premier between 2016 and 2018. (Note that $20 million for a recital hall for the conservatorium was announced by the government in August 2018, but has not been delivered to date).

      At the time of the funding promises, the pair were in a secret relationship and Mr Robertson alleges that Mr Maguire “vociferously advocated for government support for those projects within government, including to Ms Berejiklian directly”.

      “We expect the evidence to demonstrate that the proposals being investigated in this public inquiry were not subjected to a competitive assessment as to whether those proposals, or either of them, should be preferred to other possible demands on the public purse,” Mr Robertson said.

      “And while that does not, without more, indicate corruption, it does raise the possibility that Ms Berejiklian’s conduct had the effect of preferring organisations based in Wagga Wagga to other equally or more deserving
      organisations based elsewhere in this state.”

      Berejiklian’s response

      As we will continue to point out throughout this blog, Ms Berejiklian denies all wrongdoing. She had this to say in her resignation speech on October 1:

      The issues which [the ICAC] … is investigating are historic matters that have already been the subject of numerous attacks on me by political opponents during the last 12 months.

      Many of the matters were the subject of questions I was asked by the Opposition while appearing before an estimates committee hearing earlier this year.

      I want to be very clear, in all the decisions I have ever made as a Minister or as Premier for NSW, my first consideration has always been the well-being and welfare of the people of this state.

      I state categorically, I have always acted with the highest level of integrity. History will demonstrate that I have always executed my duties with the highest degree of integrity for the benefit of the people of NSW who I have had the privilege to serve.

      Why is the ICAC investigating Gladys Berejiklian?

      On October 1 this year, the ICAC announced it was expanding its inquiry into former NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire to investigate whether former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian:

      • Engaged in conduct between 2012 and 2018 that was “liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct” by Mr Maguire, with whom she was in a close personal relationship between about 2015 and at least 2018. Mr Maguire said yesterday that the relationship continued until 2020, shortly before the ICAC started the first round of public hearings in this inquiry in September.
      • Exercised her official functions dishonestly or partially by refusing to exercise her legal duty to report any reasonable suspicions about Mr Maguire to the ICAC. Under section 11 of the ICAC Act, a NSW minister and other public officials have a duty to report to the corruption watchdog any matter that the person suspects on reasonable grounds concerns or may concern corrupt conduct.
      • Exercised any of her official functions partially in connection with $35 million in state government grants or promises made to organisations in Mr Maguire’s electorate, the Australian Clay Target Association and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music. Some of the money ($20 million for a lavish recital hall for the conservatorium) was announced by the government but has not been delivered.

      It is important to note that Ms Berejiklian has strenuously denied all wrongdoing.

      Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian outside her Northbridge office in Sydney on Friday. Credit:Rhett Wyman

      She announced on October 1 that she would quit politics, triggering a by-election in her seat of Willoughby, but said “history will demonstrate that I have always executed my duties with the highest degree of integrity for the benefit of the people of NSW”.

      The inquiry will hear today from Ms Berejiklian for the first time in public since last year. Her evidence is expected to continue on Monday.

      The ICAC has now heard from three current or former politicians, five former political advisers and four current or former NSW bureaucrats, plus Mr Maguire. None of the witnesses are accused of wrongdoing.

      Among the witnesses last week were former NSW premier Mike Baird and his then director of strategy, Nigel Blunden, former deputy premier John Barilaro and the NSW Liberals’ deputy leader, Trade and Industry Minister Stuart Ayres.

      The inquiry heard on Tuesday from a trio of former advisers in Ms Berejiklian’s office, including her former chief of staff, Sarah Cruickshank, who gave surprise evidence that the then-premier told her in July 2018 that she had been in a “historical” relationship with Mr Maguire before she became premier.

      Ms Berejiklian told the ICAC last year that the relationship in fact continued after she became premier in January 2017, and continued at least until she asked Mr Maguire for his resignation from Parliament in July 2018 after he gave evidence at an earlier inquiry. Ms Cruickshank reluctantly accepted the word “lie” when asked if Ms Berejiklian had lied to her about the duration of the relationship.

      Ms Berejiklian was asked by counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, in October last year when the relationship with Mr Maguire ended.

      She replied:“Well, obviously, a few months ago, when I was asked to support this inquiry, it became apparent to me that I should have absolutely no contact anymore with that individual, and I ceased all contact.”

      She subsequently said that “the last conversation I had with him was on 13 September” last year.

      What have Maguire and Berejiklian told the ICAC so far?

      The ICAC is investigating whether the former NSW Liberal MP for Wagga Wagga, Daryl Maguire, improperly used his public office and parliamentary resources between 2012 and 2018 to obtain a benefit for himself or entities close to him.

      It is also investigating whether former premier Gladys Berejiklian, with whom he was in a years-long secret relationship, was in a position of conflict between her private interests and public duties and engaged in conduct “liable to allow or encourage corruption” by him.

      The ICAC is investigating two “case studies” involving multimillion-dollar grants or promises made to organisations in Mr Maguire’s electorate when Ms Berejiklian was treasurer and later premier. She has denied all wrongdoing and will give evidence today.

      Former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire leaving the ICAC building in 2020.Credit:James Brickwood

      The ICAC started public hearings in the inquiry on September 21 last year.

      It heard Mr Maguire used a company called G8way International as the vehicle through which he pursued a range of commercial opportunities involving China. There is no suggestion Ms Berejiklian had any involvement in that company.

      Mr Maguire made a number of significant admissions when he gave evidence to ICAC October last year:

      • He admitted he used his position as an MP and parliamentary secretary to make money for himself and his business associates, and agreed he sought to “monetise” his public roles for private profit.
      • He agreed he turned his office in Parliament House “partly” into an office for G8wayinternational, including conducting business meetings there and asking parliamentary staff to assist him with this work.
      • He agreed he knew he was not permitted to use his office or staff and resources in this way, and agreed he knew he was required to use the resources “wholly and solely” in the exercise of his public functions.
      • He also agreed he was involved in a fraudulent cash-for-visas scheme for Chinese nationals. “Do you agree that on more than one occasion you received deliveries in your Parliament House office of thousands of dollars in cash associated with a scheme involving the obtaining of Australian visas for Chinese nationals?” counsel assisting ICAC, Scott Robertson, asked on October 14 last year. “Yes,” Mr Maguire replied.

      He made further admissions in his evidence yesterday:

      • His relationship with Ms Berejiklian continued after she forced him to quit politics in 2018 following his evidence at an earlier corruption inquiry. At least as far as he was concerned, they were still in a relationship until shortly before the first series of public hearings in this inquiry in September last year.
      • Mr Maguire admitted that he attempted in 2017 to get confidential information from state MPs about land in Cawdor in the Wollondilly Shire to assist his property broker friend William Luong. There is no suggestion Ms Berejiklian was involved. Mr Maguire told the ICAC he had “no agreement” that he would receive a commission from Mr Luong but it was a possibility.
      • He also admitted he was a vociferous advocate for millions of dollars in state government funding for two organisations in his electorate, the Australian Clay Target Association and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music. This extended to lobbying Ms Berejiklian while she was treasurer and premier and the pair were in a secret relationship.
      • Mr Maguire admitted that G8way International, a company through which he pursued a range of commercial opportunities, assisted the Australian Clay Target Association to buy furniture. But he said he had “nothing to do with it” and it was an associate of his who was involved in helping the association. Asked if his associate received a commission, Mr Maguire said: “No one works for nothing, Mr Robertson.” “Exactly,” counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, replied.

      The then-premier, Gladys Berejiklian, also gave evidence before the inquiry last year.

      • Ms Berejiklian caught colleagues and the public by surprise by telling the ICAC on October 12 that she had been in what counsel assisting the inquiry called a “close personal relationship” with Mr Maguire from about the time of the 2015 election until at least July 2018, with contact continuing between the pair until September last year. For a full timeline of their relationship, click here.
      • She denied that she was turning a blind eye when she said to Mr Maguire in a tapped phone call on September 7, 2017, that “I don’t need to know about that bit” when he was discussing financial interests associated with the proposed Badgerys Creek Airport. She said she didn’t have “any reason to believe that all this pie-in-the-sky fanciful stuff would actually come to fruition, because … he would often talk about these mega deals and whatever else, but they never seemed to come to fruition”.
      • Ms Berejiklian said she would have had “no compunction” in reporting Mr Maguire if she had suspected he was involved in any misconduct. “I assumed that he was making the appropriate disclosures,” she said. She told the inquiry “he was always talking big about deals and they always seemed to fall through, so I didn’t take it seriously”.

      Good morning and welcome

      Good morning and welcome to day ten of our live coverage of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption’s public hearings in Operation Keppel, its inquiry into former NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire and former premier Gladys Berejiklian.

      I’m Michaela Whitbourn and I’ll be keeping you informed of the latest evidence throughout the day. The hearing starts at 10am and the public inquiry is expected to continue until at least Monday next week.

      Today, Ms Berejiklian will give evidence for the first time in public since last year.

      Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire.Credit:Dominic Lorrimer, Nick Moir

      The former premier quit politics on October 1 after the ICAC announced that it was expanding the scope of this investigation from its sole focus on Mr Maguire. It is now investigating, among other things, whether Ms Berejiklian engaged in conduct between 2012 and 2018 that was “liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct by Mr Maguire”, with whom she was in a secret relationship.

      Mr Maguire told the ICAC yesterday that the relationship started in 2015 and continued until last year, shortly before public hearings in this inquiry started in September.

      Ms Berejiklian has already given evidence that she did not cease contact with Mr Maguire until September 13 last year and that the relationship continued until at least 2018, after she asked him to quit politics following his evidence at an earlier ICAC inquiry into the former Canterbury Council.

      You can view a timeline of their relationship here.

      In its report in March this year, the ICAC did not make a corruption finding against Mr Maguire in relation to that earlier inquiry but it did recommend the NSW Director of Public Prosecutions consider prosecuting him for giving false and misleading evidence at the hearing on July 13, 2018.

      As we will note throughout the blog today, it is important to be clear that no findings have been made in this inquiry and Ms Berejiklian has strenuously denied wrongdoing.

      She had this to say in her resignation speech:

      I want to be very clear, in all the decisions I have ever made as a minister or as premier for NSW, my first consideration has always been the well-being and welfare of the people of this state.

      I state categorically, I have always acted with the highest level of integrity. History will demonstrate that I have always executed my duties with the highest degree of integrity for the benefit of the people of NSW who I have had the privilege to serve.

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