ICAC turmoil: NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian ‘rode roughshod’ over advice

Gladys Berejiklian was repeatedly told that moving the Greater Sydney Commission into her personal ministerial control would have adverse impacts on decision-making.

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian in question time on Wedneday. Picture: Bianca De Marchi

Gladys Berejiklian was repeatedly told that moving the Greater Sydney Commission out of the Planning Department and into her personal ministerial control would have adverse impacts on decision-making and provide no obvious benefit to the state.

The Australian has learned that Ms Berejiklian held a meeting with Department of Planning secretary Carolyn McNally in April 2018 at which concerns were raised with the Premier about moving the agency away from the Planning Department.

Ms McNally had already signed six pages of written advice two months prior to the meeting warning of “major risks” and “significant implications” associated with moving the agency. Also present during the discussion were then planning minister Anthony Roberts — now the Corrections Minister — and Tim Reardon, the secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet.

Ms McNally was advised by the Premier to draw up an alternative division of the agency’s responsibilities that would allow for some functions to be retained by the Planning Department and others to be shifted.

The meeting was held in the immediate months after former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire was recorded on a phone call to Ms Bere­jiklian, with whom he was involved in a secret relationship, complaining about the GSC and “big problems” it was causing in relation to a prospective land deal.

Mr Maguire stood to make a substantial commission from the sale of the land if it proceeded.

Despite the meeting with Ms McNally and the written advice warning of the risks, Ms Berejik­lian announced two months later that the GSC would be subsumed by her department.

A fortnight later, Mr Maguire was exposed as a corruption target by the Independent Commission Against Corruption.

The NSW government has defended its decision to move the GSC by arguing that its leadership team proposed the move itself. However, The Australian has established that this request was made in late March, several weeks after Ms McNally signed written advice arguing against the move.

Ms McNally, who left her position in 2019, declined to comment, other than to say: “The advice speaks for ­itself.”

In question time on Wednesday, the Premier refused to answer questions from the NSW opposition on whether she had made decisions about the agency for the benefit of Mr Maguire.

“Daryl Maguire complained to you about the Greater Sydney Commission and you took it over, he complained about Rob Stokes and you stripped him of the planning portfolio, he complained about your department head and you sacked him — why was Daryl Maguire running your government?” asked Labor leader Jodi McKay.

The Premier said in reply that the government made its decisions “in the interests of the ­people of the state”.

Questions to Ms Berejiklian by The Australian asking why advice was sought about moving the GSC to the Premier’s cluster a month before an official request from the agency was submitted went unanswered.

A spokesperson for the Department of Premier and Cabinet said moving the agency brought it in line with “other independent, statutory bodies such as Infrastructure NSW and the Public Service Commission”.

As Ms Berejiklian weighed a decision to shift the GSC into her portfolio, Mr Maguire was trying to lobby the agency to adjust its zonings around Badgerys Creek airport, where racing heiress Louise Waterhouse owned a development site she was trying to sell.