Premier’s staff grilled over grants to Daryl and shredded notes
Senior staff in the office of Premier Gladys Berejiklian “shredded” notes that indicated her approval of millions of grants to councils under the $250 million Stronger Communities Fund.
NSW
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Senior staff in the office of Premier Gladys Berejiklian “shredded” notes that indicated her approval of millions of grants to councils under the $250 million Stronger Communities Fund.
The premier also handed out six grants totalling $40,000 to the electorate of Wagga Wagga when she was in a relationship with then local member Daryl Maguire.
The stunning revelations were to a state parliamentary inquiry scrutinising the allocation of $142 million dollars of grants allocated by the Premier to largely Coalition seats.
Emails obtained by the Public Accountability Committee reveal Ms Berejiklian’s senior policy adviser Sarah Lau declaring how the premier had “signed off” on the grants.
When asked about the emails, Ms Lau told the committee the words “signed off” were more a “turn of phrase” and that she really meant Ms Berejiklian was “comfortable” with the proposed allocation.
Asked how she knew, Ms Lau revealed she had exchanged up to two “informal working advice notes” on which Ms Berejiklian “maybe have made a note on my note” indicating she was “comfortable” with the proposal.
When quizzed about the existence of the notes — including the electronic versions of them — Ms Lau said it was “likely” they were destroyed as part of her “normal records management”.
“It’s likely they were shredded,” she said. “It was 21/2 years ago when they would have been disposed of, but it’s part of my normal records management.
“I may have retained them for a short period while I was still working on the program.”
When asked by committee chair and Greens MP David Shoebridge if there were electronic copies, Ms Lau said they too were “deleted”.
As well as the council grants, the committee learned Ms Berejiklian herself handed out discretionary grants to various community projects, including six that went to Wagga Wagga between 2017 and 2018.
However, neither the Premier nor Mr Maguire are believed to have disclosed their relationship despite Ms Berejiklian’s then chief-of-staff Sarah Cruikshank conceding it was “plausible” that a declaration may be required in cases where there was a conflict of interest in relation to the making of a grant.
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Ms Cruikshank, who appeared as a witness at the inquiry, was asked by committee member Labor MP Courtney Houssos if she was aware of the Premier making any disclosures “about Daryl Maguire” before approving the funds.
Ms Cruikshank replied: “No I’m not.”
Asked a further question by Labor MP John Graham if there should have been a conflict of interest declaration “if there a decision where the Premier was making an allocation and there was a conflict”, Ms Cruikshank answered: “I’m actually not clear on whether or not that is a requirement for the discretionary fund.
“However, I accept that that does sound plausible. I think you are probably right. ”
Ms Cruikshank, who was chief-of-staff up until February, said no such disclosure was made to her although premiers and ministers could make declarations directly to the department.
Describing the revelations as “extraordinary”, Mr Shoebridge called on the Premier to reveal whether the practice of destroying notes was still underway.
“It is simply too convenient that these documents directly tracing what the Premier knew, and her comments on it, have been destroyed,” he said.
“Did the Premier know her staff were routinely destroying these critical state records? Is it still happening? These are questions that immediately arise.”
The revelations come as Ms Berejiklian faces ongoing scrutiny over whether she breached the Ministerial Code of Conduct by not disclosing what her critics claim was an “intimate” rather than “close personal” relationship — the latter not requiring a declaration.
One Nation MP Mark Latham told parliament on Thursday how Mr Maguire had a key to the premier’s house.