Andrew Bolt: Gladys Berejiklian’s demise is her fault

Some wail that Gladys Berejiklian has been “knifed by unelected lawyers” but the only person she has to blame is herself.

I agree, the wrong premier quit on Friday. It would be better for Australia had Victoria’s Dan Andrews resigned, and not NSW’s Gladys Berejiklian.

She was easily the best premier in this pandemic, but spare me the excuses for her downfall.

No, it’s not because she’s a woman. Not because she’s a victim. Not because she’s been nobbled by a kangaroo court.

She was just dumb and – I suspect – dishonest. All her own work.

I can’t say whether Berejiklian broke any law, or connived at corruption. That is what the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is checking.

It’s dug into the smelly affairs of her ex-lover, Daryl Maguire, who as a Liberal MP sold himself to do political favours. Berejiklian has repeatedly said she didn’t know of his deals and did nothing to help them.

But ICAC has since allegedly found legal briefings to Berejiklian in 2018 telling her that two ministerial advisers had given information to ICAC about Maguire’s potentially corrupt conduct. Maguire had days earlier quit in shame.

Premier Gladys Berejiklian was not felled by the actions of Daryl Maguire.

If true, that suggests Berejiklian was aware of her lover’s potentially corrupt conduct, yet still did not reveal their relationship, nor declare a conflict of interest. She hid their relationship until ICAC last year played her secret tapes that forced her to confess.

Last week ICAC announced it was now investigating whether she “breached public trust” or “encouraged the occurrence of corrupt conduct”, and was investigating two grants she approved on Maguire’s urging “where she was in a position of conflict between her public duties and her private interest as a person” as his girlfriend. One had been rejected by bureaucrats,

But listen to all the excuses.

Journalists and a Liberal MP wail that Berejiklian has been “knifed by unelected lawyers” on ICAC who have found her “guilty by inference”.

Wrong. ICAC didn’t find her guilty. It merely announced its investigation. Nor did it knife her. Berejiklian chose to resign.

The most pathetic excuse was put by former Victorian Labor Minister Jenny Mikakos, among others: “Feel sad that Gladys’ long career of public service was felled by a man.”

That excuse demeans women. Berejiklian was smart and strong enough to be Premier, yet we should consider her too weak as a woman to resist some cheap grafter?

Then ban women from any big job in case some male shyster makes moon eyes at her.

The truth: Berejiklian was not felled by the actions of Daryl Maguire. She was felled by her own.