Budget papers show the $170m Berejiklian promised lover was already locked in

MPs say Gladys Berejiklian was just telling her lover Daryl Maguire ‘what he wanted to hear’ when she told him she had secured $170 million for a local hospital — because the project had already been funded.

Former premier Gladys Berejiklian boasted to her then lover Daryl Maguire how she got “$170 million in five minutes” for Wagga Wagga hospital, despite the funds ­already having been promised the year before.

But, as Premier Dominic Perrottet told The Daily Telegraph’s Bush Summit on Friday, the money was already in the budget.

“Twelve months before that conversation took place, we’d already allocated $170 million in the budget (for the hospital),” he told Daily Telegraph deputy editor Anna Caldwell.

“We had gone to an election in relation to the Wagga Wagga hospital,” he said.

“That hospital had been talked about and promised; as a government we came in and delivered it.”

“I don’t remember the conversation because I do know, I do know, that that money was in the budget the year before,” he said.

“I’ve worked very closely in my time as treasurer with the health minister to expand the capital portfolio and invest right across the board.”

Gladys Berejiklian gives evidence at ICAC on Friday. Picture: Supplied

Puzzled senior Liberals on Saturday were discussing the secret 2018 phone intercept played to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption in which the then Wagga Wagga MP had been complaining to Ms Berejiklian about funding for the local hospital not being in the draft budget.

In reply, Ms Berejiklian ­declared she had spoken to then treasurer Dominic Perrottet, demanding he “put 140 in the budget” while boasting how “he just does what I ask him to”.

Mr Perrottet joked about that comment on Friday, saying: “My wife messaged me this morning and said ‘why do you do what Gladys tells you to do and not what I tell you to do?’”

Later in the recorded conversation, with Mr Maguire continuing to whine, she boasted how she had actually secured him $170 million: “I’ve got, you know, got you the 170 million in five minutes.”

However, Liberal MPs dissecting the secret phone taps on Saturday also recalled that $170 million had already been set aside for Stage 3 of the Wagga Wagga hospital redevelopment in the 2017-18 NSW Budget.

The $170 million “estimated to cost” figure is listed among the health items in the NSW Budget Infrastructure Statement, with $4 million to be drawn down that financial year for the works, which were to be completed by 2022.

An “estimated to cost” figure signifies the state government’s commitment to invest the funds, with the allocation for that year being the amount calculated that is ­required for the works to be undertaken that year.

2017-18 Budget Paper No. 2, including the reference to Wagga Wagga base hospital.

In the following state budget of 2018-19, the three stages of the hospital redevelopment – which total $431 million – were consolidated, with $20 million made available for the necessary works that year.

“It shows that Daryl didn’t know how to read the budget papers, and that Gladys was just telling him what he wanted to hear,” a senior Liberal said.

The ICAC is examining the circumstances in which the NSW government granted or promised millions of dollars to the Australian Clay Target Association and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Maguire’s electorate while he was in a relationship with Ms Berejiklian, and whether she failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest.

It is also examining whether Ms Berejiklian failed to ­report suspected corruption involving Maguire.

Daryl Maguire and Gladys Berejiklian, who was then premier, in Wagga in 2017.

Several senior Liberals remained staunchly behind Ms Berejiklian, declaring she had done nothing wrong.

“Nothing in the evidence so far indicates to me any reason to doubt Gladys’s integrity,” one NSW MP said.

“Every MP – Labor, Liberal or independent – quite properly spends much of their time lobbying ministers to improve their local community facilities.

“I don’t believe for one second that Gladys treated the member for Wagga Wagga any differently in relation to those entirely normal lobbying activities.”

The comments come as the former premier prepares for a second day of grilling, with the ICAC to resume its questioning of Ms Berejiklian over a half-day on Monday before potentially concluding its hearings.

If Ms Berejiklian was feeling stressed about the proceedings, she did not show it on Saturday when she emerged from her Northbridge home.

Looking relaxed dressed in activewear, a cap and sunglasses, she hit the gym with her solicitor partner Arthur Moses.

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