‘Troubling’ evidence has ministers worried about Gladys Berejiklian’s leadership
Support from colleagues and voters is buoying Gladys Berejiklian’s mood in the toughest week of her life. But the more ICAC digs into the detail of the Premier’s relationship with disgraced ex-MP Daryl Maguire, the murkier things become, writes Anna Caldwell.
Opinion
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Those closest to Gladys Berejiklian have “wrapped around her”, staying with her well into the night this week to support the Premier in her darkest hours.
Her key ministerial backers also say they have been flooded with feedback from voters supporting the Premier — feedback that is buoying Berejiklian’s mood in the toughest week of her life.
But all the love and support in the world won’t stop the same anti-corruption rules applying from one person to the next.
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Berejiklian has received ongoing welfare checks from a string of senior Ministers, including Matt Kean, Dominic Perrottet, Andrew Constance, Brad Hazzard, Victor Dominello and David Elliott.
But even among her supporters, there was a view that evidence heard yesterday was “troubling”.
In many respects, the Premier has been fortunate that the sheer shock and voyeuristic interest in her romantic life overtook interest in the minute detail of the evidence presented to ICAC.
Because the more you dig into the detail, the murkier things become.
We now know Maguire not only seemed to bizarrely court Berejiklian with tales of his racked up debt and financial schemes, but he also told her about his business ideas.
He shared dinners with the Premier and the man who openly ran his shadow company, ICAC has heard.
Berejiklian insists she did nothing wrong. Even so, her strength was clearly fraying yesterday, when she threatened legal action against the Labor leader who was not doing much more than asking a question about evidence from the Premier’s ex-lover to the ICAC hearing.
“Will you admit that you were his sounding board for corruption?”
Ms Berejiklian said that question was “extremely offensive” and “wrong in every single way”.
“I ask her to withdraw it, or else say it out there,” the Premier said, reminding that remarks said outside parliament were not protected from legal action by parliamentary privilege.
ICAC laid on the table yesterday its reasons for breaching the Premier’s privacy and exposing her secret relationship. It is not something done lightly.
“As part of this commission’s responsibility of investigating not just alleged corrupt conduct but conduct that is connected with alleged corrupt conduct it was necessary in my judgment,” counsel assisting Scott Robertson said.
You can see why ministers are worried.