ICAC to call former NSW premier Mike Baird, deputy Liberal leader Stuart Ayres to testify in probe into Gladys Berejiklian’s conduct in office
The anti-corruption probe into Gladys Berejiklian’s conduct in office will hear from a top MP who was promoted last week – and another former premier.
The new deputy leader of the NSW Liberal Party Stuart Ayres and former premier Mike Baird are among the witnesses called before a corruption watchdog that is probing Gladys Berejiklian‘s conduct in office.
Mr Ayres was selected as new Premier Dominic Perrottet‘s right-hand man just last week.
Mr Baird was NSW premier between 2014 and 2017, when he was replaced in the top job by Ms Berejiklian.
It wasn't immediately clear what topics the two would be asked about.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption will begin holding public hearings next Monday as part of an investigation into allegations Ms Berejiklian breached public trust in relation to a personal relationship she conducted with an MP.
The ICAC announced on October 1 it would investigate whether Ms Berejiklian‘s relationship with Daryl Maguire created a conflict of interest that resulted in her breaching the public’s trust by awarding grants to a clay target association and a music conservatorium in Mr Maguire‘s electorate of Wagga Wagga.
The bombshell announcement caused Ms Berejiklian to step down as premier.
The ICAC also said it would investigate whether the Premier breached the public trust by allegedly failing to report conduct by Mr Maguire that may have been corrupt.
The ICAC also said it would investigate whether she was “liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct by Mr Maguire”.
The investigation will be a continuation of an ongoing probe into Mr Maguire‘s conduct as an MP.
A list of witnesses who will appear at public hearings next week was published by the ICAC on Wednesday afternoon.
Apart from Mr Ayres and Mr Baird, top bureaucrats including Michael Toohey, Director at the Office of Sport, and Paul Doorn, the CEO of Venues NSW will appear.
Mr Baird will give evidence next Wednesday, the same day as his former chief of staff Nigel Blunden. Mr Ayres is scheduled to testify the following Friday, October 22.
Ms Berejiklian was the third NSW premier to resign as a result of an ICAC investigation since the corruption watchdog’s creation in 1988.
The outgoing Willoughby MP said in her resignation speech she had “always acted with the highest level of integrity”.
“In all decisions I‘ve ever made as a minister or as premier of NSW, my first consideration has always been the wellbeing and welfare of the people of the state,” Ms Berejiklian said.
“History will demonstrate that I’ve always executed my duties, again with the highest level of integrity, for the benefit of the people of NSW.”
The new ICAC hearings will begin almost exactly a year after Ms Berejiklian revealed in a live-streamed hearing that she’d been in a secret “close personal relationship” with Mr Maguire for several years.
The relationship between Ms Berejiklian and the former Wagga Wagga MP ended in August last year, the same month she was first drawn into the ICAC investigation, by way of giving private evidence to the commission.
Her public admission in October 2020 that she secretly dated Mr Maguire – who is under investigation by the ICAC for allegedly misusing his position as MP to enrich himself – led to a firestorm of criticism from other MPs.
Ms Berejiklian survived two votes of no confidence in the days after her public testimony and went on to lead the state for 11 more months, before resigning when the ICAC declared it would expand its investigation to scrutinise her actions as well as Mr Maguire’s.
Update after baby injured by fire extinguisher
Police are still hunting two people who injured a baby with a fire extinguisher in a seemingly random attack on Sunday night.
Cook did not want husband dead: court
Allegations that Erin Patterson also wanted to kill her husband Simon Patterson at the fatal lunch have been ridiculed in court as “absurd”.