Former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian loses bid to overturn corruption finding
Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has lost her bid to have a ‘serious corrupt conduct’ finding against her quashed.
Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has lost her bid to have a “serious corrupt conduct” finding against her quashed.
In a split two-one decision, Chief Justice Andrew Bell dismissed her bid with costs, in the NSW Court of Appeal on Friday.
Ms Berejiklian had sought to overturn the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s findings that she engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” pertaining to a breach of the ministerial code by failing to disclose her relationship with her then partner, ex-MP Daryl Maguire and the approval of two multimillion-dollar grants in Mr Maguire’s former Wagga Wagga electorate
In a statement after the judges’ findings, Ms Berejiklian said she was thankful to the court for considering the matter, “given the limited nature of a challenge” that could be made to an ICAC finding.
Ms Berejiklian’s appeal centred on her argument that the report was invalid because the term of former judge Ruth McColl, who had presided over the 2021 hearings, had expired before she delivered the report.
NSW Chief Justice Bell and judge Anthony Meagher said they would dismiss the appeal.
“The assistance provided by Ms McColl was not outside the limits of her authority, and in making the report the ICAC did not act beyond its authority or power in obtaining (her) assistance as a consultant,” the judges said.
The court found that Ms McColl provided assistance to the chief commissioner, whose job was to make findings and recommendations.
However, judge Julie Ward was dissenting and said she would have upheld the appeal, finding that the commission adopted her assessments in their findings.
“The language of ‘adopt’ used in the report demonstrates that Ms McColl’s assistance went beyond the provision of ‘services, information or advice’, and constituted the making of findings that Ms McColl as a consultant did not have power to make,” Justice Ward said.
The Court of Appeal dismissed all 13 grounds of her application for judicial review.
Ms Berejiklian on Friday said serving as premier was an “honour and a privilege”, and pointed to the dissenting judgment.
“As the court noted, the ICAC Act does not permit a ‘merits’ review of the findings of ICAC,” she said.
“The dissenting judgment held that the report was beyond power and that the findings of ICAC should be quashed.
“Serving the people of NSW was an honour and privilege which I never took for granted. I always worked my hardest to look after the welfare and interests of the people of NSW.”
The funding decisions probed by ICAC related to a period between 2016 and 2018 when Ms Berejiklian was treasurer and later premier.
Ms McColl, a former Court of Appeal judge, oversaw the hearing but her term as an ICAC assistant commissioner expired in October 2022.
She delivered her report, as a consultant, last June.
Ms Berejiklian argued that because Ms McColl was not a commissioner at the time, it was not a valid report.
“The whole of the report was delivered in excess of jurisdiction,” Ms Berejiklian’s barrister Bret Walker SC said at a hearing earlier this year.
Barrister Stephen Free SC, acting for ICAC, argued at the February appeal hearing that there could be no doubt that the report was authored by the commission and not Ms McColl.
Additional reporting: Newswire
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