ICAC recommends Daryl Maguire’s ‘corrupt’ conduct for prosecution advice

Gladys Berejiklian’s one-time boyfriend was found to have engaged in ‘serious corrupt conduct’ on numerous occasions between 2012 and 2018 to enrich himself and associates.

Former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire in 2018. Picture: Erik Anderson / AAP

The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption found former MP Daryl Maguire engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” between 2012 and 2018 and has recommended him for prosecutorial advice.

Maguire, Liberal member for Wagga Wagga from 1999 to 2018 and one-time partner to former premier Gladys Berejiklian, was found by ICAC to have acted corruptly in relation to several matters. Broadly, those acts fell into four large categories:

• Acting improperly in the in­ter­ests of G8wayInternational, a company Mr Maguire and an associate set up to avoid disclosure rules while the former made financial gains;

• His “cash-for-visas scheme”;

• Misusing his role as an MP and as chair of the NSW parliament Asia Pacific Friendship Group to advance his, and his associates’, financial and commercial interests; and

• Misusing his office in relation to sale or development of land.

The report details how Mr Maguire, from 2012, a year after the Coalition’s election win, “embarked on a course of conduct by which he sought to enrich himself by exploiting his position as a member of parliament”.

The report stated he had debts collectively “in the order of $1.5m or $1.6m” in September 2017.

His communications with Ms Berejiklian contained in the ICAC report suggest his motivation for most of his development dealings was to clear those debts.

Mr Maguire resigned from the Liberal Party in July 2018 when ICAC unveiled phone tap recordings in which he asked that development applications made by a “mega big” client be approved quickly. The following month he resigned from parliament.

ICAC found Mr Maguire had “monetis[ed] his position … to promote his own pecuniary interests” in relation to G8wayInternational, a company it said Maguire set up with associate Phillip Elliott to “put funds into the business to which he would have a claim at some point in time while avoiding his disclosure obligations”.

In so doing, ICAC found Mr Maguire had chosen not to comply with disclosure requirements and that he had sought and received a fee – invoiced by G8wayInter­national – for setting up a meeting with a Chinese party secretary and then-premier Barry O’Farrell.

In relation to the immigration scheme, the ICAC report said Mr Maguire facilitated a “cash-for-visas scheme” in which businesses – several owned by constituents in his electorate – received payment in return for them acting as “potential nominators or sponsors” for visas of Chinese nat­ionals. The report said he also received payment for successful “placement”.

Mr Maguire also misused his role as chair of the NSW parliament’s Asia Pacific Friendship Group, the report states.

He used his position “to leverage, or seek to leverage” to find ­investors for projects “with a view to his personal pecuniary benefit” or otherwise pursue financial ­benefit for business associates and for G8wayInternational.

There are eight subsections under findings of corrupt conduct in relation to sale and development of land in the ICAC report. Mr Maguire “acted as a middleman”, the report states. “He brought his ability to act as a door opener to the table to ‘earn’ his hoped-for commission.

“He assisted the vendors and property developers discussed … to gain access, whether directly or indirectly, to members of parliament, their staff and other public sector employees who it was hoped could resolve whatever ‘obstacle’ the developer was encountering in advancing their project.”

On one such occasion, he told Ms Berejiklian of success in orchestrating a deal involving land near the site of the new Western Sydney Airport owned by racing magnate Louise Waterhouse.

To this, she responded: “I don’t need to know about that bit.”