ICAC turmoil: Gladys Berejiklian tight-lipped over taxpayer-funded trips

Gladys Berejiklian refuses to reveal whether she met up with secret beau Daryl Maguire on visits to Wagga Wagga.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian leaves home on Thursday ahead of Daryl Maguire’s second day at ICAC. Picture: Jeremy Piper

Gladys Berejiklian refuses to reveal whether she met up with ­secret beau Daryl Maguire on ­taxpayer-funded trips to Wagga Wagga after he was forced to quit parliament in disgrace, despite vowing to be “open and transparent in answering every single question” about the scandal.

Astute political observers would have had the opportunity to see Mr Maguire winning and dining the state’s most eligible political bachelorette on a number of her trips to his electorate during their covert relationship, according to interview transcripts tendered at the Independent Com­mission Against Corruption late on Thursday afternoon.  

One of the shamed former Wagga MP’s friends, Karen Barbey, told investigators last year she could recall meeting Ms Berejik­lian over dinner at Mr Maguire’s home and during an evening out at the restaurant in the city’s Romano’s Hotel, which is famed for its pub classics — including its $20 chicken schnitzel and chips and $14 beef nachos — but could not place the relevant dates.

It was unclear whether the Premier was in Wagga Wagga for business or pleasure.

Ms Berejiklian travelled to Mr Maguire’s former electorate in the state’s Riverina region days after he officially resigned from office on Friday, July 27, 2018, having held the safe Liberal seat of Wagga Wagga for almost two decades, but would not say whether she spent part of her time there consoling her then boyfriend following his political demise or had dinner with him on that occasion.

Gladys Berejiklian with Daryl Maguire and Barry O'Farrell.

The Premier caught up with Wagga Wagga mayor Greg Conkey in Bathurst, four hours’ drive from his hometown, on Monday, July 30, 2018, before making her way to the city, returning to Sydney on a Regional Express Airlines flight on Wednesday.

She made five more official trips at taxpayers’ expense — along with a number of her ministerial colleagues — in the following month as her party fought hard to retain their blue-ribbon seat in a by-election forced by her partner’s resignation.

The trips proved futile, the seat passing out of Liberal hands for the first time in more than half a century, and going to independent candidate Joe McGirr.

Asked repeatedly by The Australian over the past three days whether Ms Berejiklian had taken advantage of the official work trips to visit her allegedly corrupt boyfriend, the Premier’s office refused to rule out the possibility this had occurred.

Ms Berejiklian’s five-year relationship with Mr Maguire has raised plenty of eyebrows and even more questions since it was revealed by the Premier while giving evidence at ICAC on Monday.

Her critics have called into question her judgment in failing to disclose the romance and continuing to maintain it after she was made aware of serious allegations facing Mr Maguire.

Ms Berejiklian told the commission she had started seeing the former Liberal Party whip around the time of the NSW state election in March 2015 and the relationship had remained intact after he quit the Liberal Party and then parliament in July 2018 after being accused of trying to use his public position for private financial gain.

The relationship ended in Aug­ust after the Premier gave evidence at an ICAC private hearing.

Ms Berejiklian has said she kept her “close personal relationship” with Mr Maguire hidden because she was a “very private person” and did not believe it was substantial enough to warrant disclosure, even when she started facing questions about his allegedly corrupt dealings in parliament.

The Premier has not been ­accused of any wrongdoing and she has rejected any suggestion her relationship caused any conflict of interest.