Daryl Maguire’s China Files archived in Charles Sturt University

A set of mystery folders called “The China Files” from disgraced MP Daryl Maguire’s office are sitting in a university library — but cannot be opened.

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A set of mystery folders called “The China Files” from disgraced MP Daryl Maguire’s office are sitting in a university library — but cannot be opened.

Staffers for Maguire have told ICAC when their boss was forced to resign they were sent a directive to “destroy the China files”, but they had already archived previous years from 1999 onwards with Charles Sturt University’s local library branch.

The files are archived in Charles Sturt University’s local library branch.

The university library says it only has Maguire’s China files up to the year 2007 – but cannot release the contents without the permission of Maguire or upon his death.

Maguire took an 11-day trip to China in 2002 paid for by Chinese businessman Humphrey Xu, who was found drowned in a pool just weeks before ICAC began its closed door hearings in August this year.

When ICAC investigators quizzed Maguire staffer Brenda Tritton about the existence of the physical folders, she said her job was to “maintain the China File” and it contained emails, itineraries of Maguire’s trips to China and correspondence. But she said anything after 2015 was destroyed.

“We had a China file which was, just everything relating to China was put in there,” she said. “Each year we would, we would have a China file.”

When The Daily Telegraph asked to view the contents of the file, the university’s archive office said they had located “two consignments of office files from the Wagga Wagga Electorate Office that were deposited with us”.

“However, the date range given in the transcript you mentioned was a little off — the office files range from 1997 to 2003 in the first collection, and 2003 to 2007 in the second.”

The missing files between 2007 and 2015 remain unaccounted for.

Under ICAC’s legal powers, it is allowed to enter universities, which are considered public authorities, and “inspect any document or other thing in or on the premises”.

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Originally published as Daryl Maguire’s China Files archived in Charles Sturt University