Public on Premier’s side but big questions remain

Standards of propriety matter in public life. And although Daryl Maguire, the former Liberal member for Wagga Wagga in the NSW parliament, has not yet concluded his evidence to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption, it is clear he egregiously abused his position, failed his constituents and pursued personal gain over the public good for many years. On his own admission, Mr Maguire treated his electoral and Parliament House offices as private business premises from which he peddled influence and solicited cash from an odious cluster of grifters and opportunists. He brazenly conducted a lobbying business, G8way, to arrange access to the highest levels of the NSW government. He presided over a cash-for-visa scheme that was essentially a scam. That little earner entailed the physical delivery of bags of cash to his Parliament House office in return for his arranging visas for Chinese nationals. It defies belief that many of his colleagues did not know of such blatant corruption being conducted in the parliamentary precinct. On one occasion he paraded his access to power before a property developer, inviting him to an impromptu visit to NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in her office.

On Monday the prim and proper Ms Berejiklian, whose prodigious work ethic, attention to detail and dedication to NSW are well known, dropped a bombshell, telling ICAC about her clandestine, five-year close personal relationship with Mr Maguire. It has been clear that her former close friend’s unethical conduct has the potential to seriously undermine her position, perhaps irreparably. That is up to her, or up to her parliamentary colleagues. It says much about Ms Berejiklian’s performance that public sentiment, at this stage, is definitively on the side of giving her a leave pass. Or as Malcolm Turnbull told the ABC on Tuesday: “Gladys is one of the most diligent leaders in Australia today, she is diligent, she is honest. She’s not Robinson Crusoe — she’s human. She fell in love with the wrong guy.” She has Scott Morrison and many others in her corner. At a critical point in containing COVID-19 and generating economic recovery, few relish the prospect of a leadership change in NSW.

That said, standards matter. Our largest and most important state could not sustain a lame-duck leader indefinitely. On Thursday, Ms Berejiklian came out fighting. In a feisty exchange in parliament, Opposition Leader Jodi McKay accused her of being a “sounding board for corruption”. Ms Berejiklian hit back: “I ask (Ms McKay) to withdraw it or say it out there. Either withdraw it or say it outside.” The Premier insisted she had done “nothing wrong”. She’d “worked my guts out for the people of this great state” and would continue to do so. If she is determined to push on, the public deserves to hear a lot more from her about her thinking through the years she was close to Mr Maguire.

Decent people feel natural empathy for anyone whose private life is exposed against their will in such a fashion. But Ms Berejiklian is accountable for her professional rather than her personal judgment. While principle must prevail over pragmatism and expediency, the key question is to what extent did Ms Berejiklian know of the brazen debasement of elected office to which her close personal friend stooped. That is especially important if the steady decline in the esteem for our liberal democratic institutions is to be arrested. For this reason, it is imperative that the ICAC inquiry unravel the complex web of influence surrounding Mr Maguire. Did any ministers make decisions that enriched him? Which bureaucrats, if any, were receptive to his overtures? Did they allocate priority to matters raised by Mr Maguire because they knew he had the ear of the Premier?

There is no suggestion, of course, that she sought any personal gain from Mr Maguire’s ventures. And, as she made clear on Monday, she presumed he had declared his interests. At one point she pointedly made clear that she did not wish to hear details of Mr Maguire’s windfall from a sale of land in the Badgerys Creek area. What does seem clear is that Ms Berejiklian was well aware that Mr Maguire was on the lookout for opportunities to make money to defray large personal debts. Of more concern is her maintenance of a clandestine relationship with Mr Maguire after he was forced to resign from the Liberal Party in July 2018, and three weeks later from parliament. On what is known of Mr Maguire’s conduct and the Premier’s connections to him, she has made grievous errors of judgment. On that measure alone, her colleagues are weighing up what is best for the government and the state.

ICAC has previously claimed the political scalps of two decent Liberal premiers — Nick Greiner and Barry O’Farrell — for blemishes that are inconsequential, compared with the naked avarice and abuse of office of Mr Maguire. We will not pre-empt ICAC’s findings and the extent to which Ms Berejiklian has been tainted by the dealings of her trusted friend, who conformed to the stereotype of a venal, self-interested shyster. The final cards are yet to fall.