Berejiklian considers legal challenge after ICAC’s corruption finding

Former premier Gladys Berejiklian has left the door open for a legal challenge against the anti-corruption watchdog after it found she engaged in serious corrupt conduct during her years-long secret romance with disgraced ex-MP Daryl Maguire.

Berejiklian was unrepentant on Thursday after the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s (ICAC) bombshell findings into her conduct while she was in a clandestine relationship with Maguire, who was also found to have acted corruptly.

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian leaves her home in Sydney on Thursday ahead of the release of the ICAC’s report.Credit: Louise Kennerley

Despite the damning findings, Berejiklian said her legal team was examining the report and maintained she had always “worked my hardest in the public interest”. “Nothing in this report demonstrates otherwise,” Berejiklian said in a statement.

However, the expansive report was scathing of Berejiklian’s conduct and her protestations that she never suspected her secret boyfriend was involved in any untoward activities while an MP.

“Her assertions that virtually no matter what Mr Maguire told her, she did not believe he had done anything wrong, let alone engaged in corrupt conduct, were dissembling, and almost impossible to accept as genuine,” the report found.

The ICAC also made serious corruption findings against Maguire, finding he “misused his role as an MP to advance his own financial interests, as well as the commercial interests of his associates”.

One of those related to an alleged cash-for-visa scheme for which he is currently facing criminal charges. The ICAC recommended the DPP consider the further prosecution of Maguire and two of his business associates.

In the two-volume report, the ICAC found that Berejiklian engaged in “serious corrupt conduct by breaching public trust” through awarding grants that Maguire had personally lobbied for “without disclosing her close personal relationship” with the then MP for Wagga Wagga.

The grants related to a gun club and a music conservatorium in Maguire’s Riverina seat.

The ICAC report found Berejiklian took steps to award the grants pushed by Maguire based on a “desire on her part to maintain or advance” her relationship with him.

The commission also found Berejiklian displayed “a level of deference” to Maguire’s “wishes and demands”, publishing a previously undisclosed text message exchange from February 2018 in which she told him “you’re the boss”.

“Glad, even when you are the Premier I am the boss alright,” Maguire wrote. “Yes I know,” Berejiklian responded.

Despite Berejiklian’s insistence that the romance was not serious, the ICAC dismissed her argument that she had not felt her relationship with Maguire was “sufficient” to disclose.

It revealed details of hundreds of private messages between the pair dating back to 2013, many of which were “replete with terms of endearment, the use of pet names and other indications of mutual affection and love” including discussions about marriage and the possibility of having children.

The ICAC also highlighted that, while refusing to acknowledge her relationship with Maguire, she made other conflict of interest declarations, including one relating to a cousin who worked in the public service.

“If Ms Berejiklian turned her mind to the significance of her position vis-à-vis her cousin after 23 January 2017, it is improbable she would not have considered her position vis-à-vis Mr Maguire,” the ICAC said.

Among the scathing details in the 700-page report was ICAC’s finding that Berejiklian lied to her former chief of staff Sarah Cruickshank about the nature and duration of her relationship with Maguire during a conversation in 2018. Berejiklian told Cruickshank that the relationship occurred before she was premier and amounted only to a few dinners.

“The commission finds that in so doing, Ms Berejiklian lied to Ms Cruickshank about her relationship with Mr Maguire and its nature, length and intimacy,” the report stated.

Despite the findings, the commission said it did not believe that “consideration should be given to obtaining the advice of the DPP [Director of Public Prosecutions] with respect to the prosecution of Ms Berejiklian for any offence”.

If she did seek to challenge its findings in the NSW Supreme Court, her team of high-powered lawyers would need to prove the anti-corruption watchdog made an error of law.

The ICAC has been subject to criticism from politicians on both sides of the aisle over the lengthy delay in releasing its findings, but its report shifted blame back onto Berejiklian, noting her failure to disclose what she should have suspected was corruption.

The reaction from Berejiklian’s former Liberal Party colleagues was mixed. Matt Kean, a close ally of the former premier, hit out at the ICAC over what he called a “ridiculous display”.

“So it has taken ICAC two years to tell us that Gladys Berejiklian has not broken the law,” he wrote on social media.

The new Opposition Leader Mark Speakman was more circumspect, and said he would expect a minister to disclose such a relationship.

“We were all gobsmacked when that emerged,” Speakman said. “If those findings of fact stand up, then, in hindsight, I would have expected as a minister for that to be disclosed.”

The Labor government this week announced it would change the ICAC Act to force the watchdog to publish timelines for its investigations, and Premier Chris Minns said after the report’s release that it had taken “way too long” while commending Berejiklian’s leadership during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“It is important, however, for all politicians in NSW and anyone in public life or positions of leadership to understand we must manage conflicts of interest and declare them,” he said.

However, he also foreshadowed changes aimed at what he called “fairness to witnesses and potential subjects” of ICAC probes.

“I think it’s important that there’s not an automatic resignation or suspension from public life while the inquiry is taking place,” Minns said.

“There may be circumstances where it’s absolutely appropriate because the evidence is overwhelming, but it shouldn’t happen in an automatic way.

“People have got a right to have an investigation and the final findings submitted to the public and the parliament before their political life is stopped or ended.”

Berejiklian’s new employer, Optus, released a brief statement following the ICAC’s finding.

“Optus acknowledges the ICAC report published in relation to Gladys Berejiklian’s time serving as a Member of the NSW Parliament,” the statement said.

The report made 18 recommendations to address the codes of conduct governing MPs, saying its “ultimate goal is to improve and enhance the reputation of the NSW parliamentary system to the betterment of the people of NSW through the adoption of the recommendations”.

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