Inside the relationship of ‘insecure’ Daryl Maguire and the Premier who had to placate him

The former Premier and her secret lover made many plans during their relationship, including a baby, a possible wedding and even going public.

Former premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: John Grainger

Disgraced Liberal backbencher Daryl Maguire told his secret lover and then-premier Gladys Berejiklian he was “the boss”, as newly revealed texts and phone taps show they discussed getting married and having a baby.

Buried within the two volumes of the ICAC report are private messages and previously unpublished evidence that shows the pair were still planning to wed even when Mr Maguire was forced to stand down from politics in July 2018.

They talked about holidaying together and discussed having a child.

Despite Ms Berejiklian telling ICAC she felt the relationship lacked “substance”, the couple also had tense text exchanges which showed Mr Maguire felt emasculated by Ms Berejiklian.

On Valentine’s Day 2018, she apologised for being “mean” to him. “Normally you’re the boss, and it’s hard when we have to switch it around, that’s the truth,” she said.

Mr Maguire replied: “Yeah but I am the boss, even when you’re the Premier.”

“Yes, I know,” she said.

While Ms Berejiklian agreed with Mr Maguire at the time, her legal team later submitted to the commission that she was “appeasing an insecure man to make him feel better about himself” and it did not “reflect her sincere sentiments”.

During a private ICAC hearing she expanded on the nature of their relationship.

“(We) weren’t public … I didn’t see him very often. I was very busy. I did speak to him frequently but we didn’t see each other very often,” she said.

In text messages she claimed Mr Maguire – someone she called “Hokis” – was “her family” and she needed his emotional support to do her job.

“I am your biggest supporter! Got your back go and do your job,” Mr Maguire told her three months before he was forced to resign. “But you are my family,” she replied.

The commission found she showed concern over his “insecurities” and frequently sought to placate him.

“(She) was alive to Mr Maguire’s insecurities and/or in a manner calculated to placate him and that the exchange was easily recognisable as an instance of a woman appeasing an insecure man to make him feel better about himself. It did not reflect her sincere sentiments,” the report states.

Ms Berejiklian described her comments in what she thought were private conversations as “banal reassurances” and fought to have them kept out of the public domain as they “had nothing to do with work”.

“As you can appreciate, when you’re the premier of the state, it’s very difficult in private relationships to make people feel that – he wanted, he, he wanted to feel equal in the relationship because of my position … To make him feel less insecure, in a private capacity I’m talking now, not in a public capacity,” Ms Berejiklian said.

“When you have a position of power, it’s very difficult in a personal relationship to address that position of power, and that’s what I was referring to. It’s very personal and private. It’s got nothing to do with work. It’s actually making him feel that because I was the boss during the day, that I wouldn’t necessarily be exercising that relationship in the private relationship.”

Despite Mr Maguire having a key to her home, Ms Berejiklian did not tell her family about the long-running “on again, off again” relationship.