Explainer: Inside the ICAC inquiry which snared Gladys Berejiklian
The long-awaited Independent Commission Against Corruption’s report into Gladys Berejiklian will be released on Thursday. Here is how it came to this.
NSW
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In October, 2021, with Sydney just weeks away from Covid “freedom day” and the end of the long Delta lockdown, the Premier who had steered NSW through the pandemic abruptly resigned.
That was the day Gladys Berejiklian fronted a hastily-convened media conference to announce the corruption watchdog was investigating her conduct.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption, which had already claimed the scalps of two Liberal Premiers, was turning its sights on a third.
“I was advised late yesterday afternoon the Independent Commission Against Corruption would today release a public statement in which it will state it is investigating allegations made about me concerning matters relating to the former member for Wagga Wagga,” she said.
She strongly denied any wrongdoing, and has continued to maintain she acted in the state’s best interest.
“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,” she said.
The sudden resignation came almost a year after Ms Berejiklian was ensnared in a corruption probe involving her former lover, former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire.
It was at that inquiry – two years and eight months ago – where Ms Berejiklian first gave bombshell evidence that she had been in a “close personal relationship” with the former Wagga MP.
It was the revelation no-one saw coming. Just days earlier, Ms Berejiklian’s closest colleagues had been laughing off any suggestion that the then-Premier would fall foul of the corruption watchdog.
“She’d make Mother Teresa look bad,” one privately said at the time.
Over the course of her appearance in the 2020 inquiry, NSW heard extraordinary phone intercepts between the then-Premier and her one-time lover.
Tapped phone calls revealed the pair’s pet-names (including the Armenian term “hokis,” meaning “my soul” or “my love”).
When Maguire was tapped talking to Berejiklian about attempts to get a land deal over the line, for which he would get a cut, Berejiklian was heard saying “I don’t need to know about that bit”.
Berejiklian clung on as Premier after appearing as a witness, but was forced to quit when she found herself under investigation.
Now, as the ICAC prepares to hand down its findings, the blowtorch is being turned on the watchdog itself.
Premier Chris Minns and Liberal Leader Mark Speakman have both backed calls to put time frames on the ICAC, so that future investigations are wrapped up more quickly.
WHAT WAS THE INVESTIGATION ABOUT?
ICAC was investigating whether Berejiklian breached public trust through conflict of interest based on her personal relationship with former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire, and whether Berejiklian turned a blind eye to Maguire’s business dealings despite having suspicions he may have been corrupt.
The public hearings in 2021 related to Berejiklian’s relationship with Maguire, and her handling of proposed government grants for a gun club and a music Conservatorium in the Wagga Wagga electorate while the pair were still in a relationship.
Berejiklian has denied all wrongdoing during and since the inquiry and insisted that her relationship with Maguire had not impacted her professional duties.
Central to the inquiry was whether Berejiklian should have disclosed her secret relationship with Maguire.
Berejiklian sensationally revealed that she had been in a “close personal relationship” with Maguire during an ICAC hearing in 2020.
Berejiklian agreed that she loved Maguire, and they had considered marriage and children. They had spoken about him quitting parliament and then making their relationship public.
Berejiklian said Maguire was part of her “love circle” but said she did not consider him part of her “family” in the “legal sense”.
She told the ICAC that she would not disclose her relationship with Maguire if she had her time again.
In finishing his examination, Counsel Assisting Robertson asked whether it “never occurred” to her to disclose her relationship with Maguire in cabinet meetings.
“No,” Berejiklian responded.
Berejiklian vowed to “get on with my life” following public hearings into her in 2021.
HOW DID THE INVESTIGATION START?
Operation Keppel actually began in 2020 looking at former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire’s political dealings. It was investigating whether he engaged in conduct that breached public trust by using his position as an MP to “improperly gain a benefit for himself and/or entities close to him”.
On October 12 2020, then-Premier Gladys Berejiklian took the stand to give evidence at the public hearings into Maguire.
Under questioning, Berejiklian revealed she had been in a “close personal relationship” with the former Wagga MP.
After her bombshell evidence, she fronted the media to say she had done “nothing wrong”. She said she kept the relationship secret because she is a “very private person” and the relationship did not have “sufficient substance” to be made public.
She apologised to Liberal MPs and vowed to continue on as Premier.
The next year, after a parliamentary inquiry probed aspects of the relationship and Berejiklian’s conduct in relation to grant money, the ICAC announced – on October 1, 2021 – that it would widen the Operation Keppel investigation into Berejiklian herself.
Berejiklian resigned immediately, denying all wrongdoing. She vowed to clear her name and lashed out at the ICAC.
“The timing is completely outside of my control, as the ICAC has chosen to take this action during the most challenging weeks of the most challenging times in the history of NSW,” she said.
“I cannot predict how long it will take the ICAC to complete this investigation, let alone deliver a report, in circumstances where I was first called to give evidence at a public hearing nearly 12 months ago.”
Public hearings into Berejiklian’s conduct started later that month.
Berejiklian was the last person to give evidence at the public inquiry, which ended on November 1, 2021 after 11 days.
WHAT EVIDENCE DID PROBE INTO BEREJIKLIAN HEAR?
The nature of Berejiklian’s relationship with Maguire was a key focus of Operation Keppel’s second round of hearings, after the former Premier’s admission that she was in a “close personal relationship” with the former Wagga Wagga MP.
As part of her evidence, the former Premier was repeatedly asked whether she thought Maguire was part of her “family”.
At one point, Berejiklian was shown a text message, tendered in evidence, where she referred to Maguire as “family”.
Berejiklian said she did not consider Maguire as part of her family “in the legal sense” or in terms of the “ministerial code”.
She admitted she had “strong feelings” for Maguire, before describing him as being part of her “love circle”.
In private evidence to the ICAC, Berejiklian was asked six times whether, in July 2018, she “suspected” Maguire had been “engaged in corrupt conduct” (in relation to his business dealings).
After repeatedly saying she “didn’t know,” Berejiklian denied having any suspicions on her sixth attempt to answer the question.
GOVERNMENT GRANTS
The hearings also probed Berejiklian’s conduct in relation to two proposed government grants – for a Wagga Wagga gun club (the Australian Clay Target Shooting Association), and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music.
Intercepted phone calls played to the ICAC revealed that Berejiklian promised to “throw money at Wagga” at the behest of her then-secret lover, after Maguire resigned from parliament.
Berejiklian told the inquiry that a decision to reserve $20 million for a project championed by Maguire was made in part to “curry favour” with voters in Wagga Wagga ahead of the by-election caused by his resignation.
Berejiklian said the Riverina Conservatorium of Music project was supported by the community, and was “good for the community”.
But she said the announcement to reserve funding was also a political one, “to curry favour with the community”.
“At the end of the day, whether we like it or not, that’s democracy,” she said.
Berejiklian admitted that her government “threw money at seats in order to keep them”.
She said that fact would not be a “surprise to anybody in and around government”.
ICAC CRITICISED
The corruption watchdog has come under unprecedented scrutiny over the probe into Berejiklian, largely after her resignation.
In November 2021 then-Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Berejiklian had been subjected to “the most shameful attacks,” amid the corruption probe, and likened the ICAC’s process to a “kangaroo court”.
“The Australian people know that Gladys Berejiklian was done over by a bad process and an abuse,” he told parliament.
“What was done to Gladys Berejiklian, the people of NSW know, was an absolute disgrace,” he said.
Ahead of the March election, NSW Liberal MPs became increasingly critical – albeit privately – of the ICAC’s delay in releasing a report into Operation Keppel.
Some believe if it had been released earlier, it may have impacted the outcome of the 2023 election.
The Daily Telegraph revealed earlier this month that Ruth McColl – who was brought on specifically for the probe into the former Premier’s secret lover – had been paid more than $1.1 million for her work.
Revelations of Ms McColl’s pay cheque came after Premier Chris Minns conceded on 2GB radio that ICAC had taken “too long” to deliver its report.
Treasurer Daniel Mookhey in June said the government was “committed towards introducing an independent funding model for the ICAC” which may enable them to deliver faster reports.
The Commission has defended its work on the matter, including that of the commissioner, putting the delay down to the sheer complexity of the investigation, both factually and legally.
Margaret Cunneen SC, who was falsely accused by the ICAC of perverting the course of justice in a case she later had overturned in the New South Wales Court of Appeal and the High Court, slammed the length of time it had taken to reach a finding.
“The delay is terrible…it can’t take this long to work out if Ms Berejiklian did something wrong,” she said.
“Why has she had to wait so long? As someone who’s been touched by ICAC…it’s really quite inhumane.”
She also questioned why the “inherently personal relationship that was being investigated” between the former Premier and former Wagga MP Daryl Maguire couldn’t be done behind closed doors, saying “every right thinking member of the community” would accept that.
“It takes too long, most things should be done in private as police investigations are done and one wonders why people have to be marked with this stain of suspected corruption years and years and years before anything is ever found against them,” she told 2GB radio on Thursday.
“We have the presumption of innocence in this state yet it doesn’t seem to be that way when ICAC pronounces its findings.”
“It seems they take no account of your good character over decades and decades. As is the case for Ms Berejiklian, none of that’s taken into account - all of that is swept away as though a person of such demonstrable good character has suddenly turned rogue and the police don’t do that.”
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