No political return plans for Gladys Berejiklian following release of ICAC report

Gladys Berejiklian is not eyeing a political comeback after senior Liberals backed her following the ICAC findings.

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian. Picture: Monique Harmer

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is not eyeing a political comeback after senior Liberals backed the Optus executive following the release of serious corruption findings by the state anti-corruption watchdog.

Sources within the Liberals said the former premier was one of the party’s most popular and recognisable members in NSW after steering the state through Covid-19 and bushfires but she had no intention of a return to public life.

Ms Berejiklian has variously been touted as a potential candidate in the federal seats of Warringah and North Sydney.

Opposition Leader Mark Speakman defended Ms Berejiklian as a “magnificent public servant” as he attacked ICAC for the more than two-year delay in releasing findings against her and Mr Maguire.

“She [Ms Berejiklian] was an incredibly popular premier because she worked her guts out for the people of NSW,” he said.

Liberal powerbroker Matt Kean said it had taken the anti-corruption body more than two years to find she had “not broken the law”.

“What a ridiculous display – ICAC turning a corruption report into a live TV event at Parliament House,” he said on Twitter. “This body deciding that ‘serious corrupt conduct’ has occurred, but then recommending no charges be laid because there is no evidence?”

Manly MP James Griffin said the ICAC report would not change the feelings of millions of NSW residents towards Ms Berejiklian.

On Thursday, Ms Berejiklian said her lawyers were examining the ICAC report and said she had been honoured to serve the people of NSW. “At all times I have worked my hardest in the public interest,” she said. “Nothing in this report demonstrates otherwise.”

NSW Attorney-General Alister Henskens said ICAC should focus on serious and systematic corruption and questioned how Ms Berejiklian had been found to have acted corruptly but had not breached criminal law.

However, NSW Greens MP Kobi Shetty said findings of corruption by the Independent Commission Against Corruption were a vindication of it as she called for its funding to be increased. “This is now two premiers and almost a dozen MPs that have gone because of the work of the ICAC,” she said.