Gladys Berejiklian ICAC: Former premier promised to ‘throw money at Wagga’ for Maguire

Gladys Berejiklian assured secret boyfriend Daryl Maguire she could “overrule” bureaucrats and “throw money at Wagga” for a stadium after he was forced out of NSW Parliament, ICAC heard.

Gladys Berejiklian assured her secret boyfriend, Daryl Maguire, she would “throw money at Wagga” and “overrule” bureaucrats to build a stadium in his electorate days after he was forced out of NSW Parliament amid a political firestorm, the corruption watchdog has heard.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is investigating whether the former premier, Ms Berejiklian, breached public trust around funding promises to the electorate of Wagga Wagga while dating Maguire, who was the local MP.

Maguire, in mid-July 2018, was forced out of NSW Parliament after testifying before the ICAC about his dealings with property developers and councillors in Sydney’s southwest.

Ms Berejiklian, then premier, had told him to resign the day he gave evidence and Maguire said he became “a leper” who was considered “guilty until proven innocent”.

The ICAC was listening on July 30, 2018, when Maguire and Ms Berejiklian spoke on the phone about the future of Wagga that was now facing a by-election.

“I need to go and chill, you stressed me out,” Ms Berejiklian said in the tapped phone call.

“I’ll chill, just throw money at Wagga,” Mr Maguire responded.

“Oh I’ll throw money at Wagga don’t you worry about that — lots of it,” Ms Berejiklian said.

Maguire told the then-Premier to spend money on the “right things” in Wagga and “give them a stadium”.

“I’ll do that too — don’t worry,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“The bureaucrats knocked that all out,” he reminded her.

“Yes but I can overrule them,” the Premier responded.

Wagga went to the polls weeks after the phone call and The Daily Telegraph calculated at the time that the Coalition had promised a staggering $130 million to the electorate.

Polling suggested Wagga was turning against the Liberals after 61 years.

Among the pledges were a $30 million hospital car park, $14.4 million for a freight and logistics hub, $7 million for a cycling complex and a $50 million boost to the Tumut hospital rebuild.

Also included was a $20 million recital hall for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music (RCM).

The RCM had already received $10 million, on Maguire’s urging, to relocate to new premises.

That project would later end up before the ICAC.

The Liberals lost the safe seat to independent candidate Joe McGirr.

Earlier on Thursday, Maguire old the ICAC he had a key to Ms Berejiklian’s north Sydney home and they had discussed getting married and having children.

They loved each other, he said, though he never “met her parents”.

In their private lives together, Maguire said he had urged Ms Berejiklian to take an interest in his plans to get a $5.5 million grant for the Australian Clay Target Association (ACTA) in his electorate.

Daryl Maguire (left) with Gladys Berejiklian (right) in Wagga Wagga in 2015.

The government ultimately did hand over $5.5m to ACTA, with bureaucrats claiming in evidence to ICAC that Premier Berejiklian had taken an unusual interest in the project.

Ms Berejiklian’s barrister asked Maguire, on Thursday, if he was “using the close personal relationship” with the Premier to lobby for his projects.

“We tended to keep our private, private discussions and our business discussions fairly separate,” he said.

“But yeah, I would have given her a hard time on certain things, yeah. I wouldn’t have cut her any slack.”

Maguire agreed that he understood, at the time, his secret partner “had the power to make money flow to the electorate”.

“And she also had the power to make money flow, while premier, to projects like the conservatorium and, while treasurer, to projects like the clay target association?” Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl SC asked.

“Yes, that’s true,” Maguire responded.

Daryl Maguire at ICAC on Thursday.

A tapped phone call, from October 2017, captured Maguire telling Ms Berejiklian he wanted to make Wagga the “blazing star of the southern universe”.

Years later and sitting in the witness box at ICAC, the former MP missed few opportunities to continue singing the praises of Wagga.

He insisted that the “primary” motivation for lobbying on behalf of the ACTA and RCM was to take care of the organisations.

“You considered the RCM project an important part of your legacy?” Counsel Assisting the Commission Scott Robertson asked.

“The conservatorium needed to have its future cemented … if a legacy was a byproduct of that so be it,” Maguire responded.

Last year the ICAC heard Maguire was shadow director of a company that received a commission in order to supply furniture to the clay target association after the grant was approved.

On Thursday Maguire said he had no idea what the arrangements were as it was handled by his business partner, Phil Elliott.

“Commissions” are a recurring element in the investigation into Maguire’s time in parliament.

Maguire, on Thursday, said he had tried to help businessman William Luong hoping to earn such “commissions” but without any formal agreement.

Ms Berejiklian earlier this week. Picture: Toby Zerna

In late 2017, the ICAC heard, the former Wagga Wagga MP had tried to obtain “confidential information” from an unnamed “friend” who was another sitting member of NSW Parliament.

A tapped phone call, from December 2017, was played before the ICAC on Thursday morning.

In the phone call Maguire is heard telling Mr Luong there was “a map” that some people had seen of land around the proposed M9 orbital road in Sydney’s west.

“Can I get the map?” Mr Luong asked.

“No, we couldn’t possibly do that — that would be quite wrong,” Maguire said.

Maguire then told Mr Luong he would pass his details on to his “friend” in parliament who would “try to recall the map in his mindset”.

Ms Berejiklian’s legal team had hoped to keep some details of the relationship under wraps.

On Thursday morning they failed to have the corruption watchdog close its doors while interviewing Maguire to prevent “humiliation and harm” to Ms Berejiklian.

Ms Berejiklian’s relationship with Maguire was exposed by the Independent Commission Against Corruption in October 2020 in an investigation that ultimately pushed the Premier to resign.

Sophie Callan SC, Ms Berejiklian’s barrister, said the ICAC now wanted to “expose” more intimate details of the relationship when it grilled Maguire and the former premier.

The ICAC had indicated, she said, it wished to probe the level of “commitment” between the two in their five-year secret tryst.

“There is no public purpose served by plumbing the depths of the private life of my client about intimate details of this relationship … which she did not assess was of sufficient status to make it public,” Ms Callan said.

Ms Callan warned airing the details in public would lead to “intense and irremediable publicity”, scrutiny and “humiliation and harm”.

But Mr Robertson wanted it to stay open.

Daryl Maguire arrives at the ICAC last October. Picture: Dylan Robinson

Mr Robertson said it was “central” for the ICAC to investigate whether Ms Berejiklian’s conduct put her in a position of conflict through her relationship with Maguire.

Assistant Commissioner McColl refused Ms Berejiklian’s request, meaning the evidence will be heard in public.

The former Liberal member for Wagga Wagga first gave evidence before the ICAC in 2018 as it investigated developers and councillors in Sydney’s west.

The ICAC’s Operation Dasha would later recommend criminal charges against Maguire for giving false evidence and other charges against former members of Canterbury council.

Charges have not been laid.

The phone taps from Operation Dasha, which captured Maguire, spawned a second ICAC investigation — Keppel.

Operation Keppel focused on whether Maguire had monetised his parliamentary position in various ways and it exposed his relationship with Ms Berejiklian 12 months ago.

Ms Berejiklian, who denies all wrongdoing, was heard in one phone call cutting Maguire off as he spoke about one business deal the ICAC would later probe.

“I don’t need to know about that bit,” she told Maguire, the ICAC heard.

Ms Berejiklian’s premiership survived the initial shock but 12 months on the ICAC announced it was broadening its investigation into the shooting club grant and another in Wagga.

Ms Berejiklian will give evidence on Friday and Monday.