Minister Anthony Roberts linked to ex-Lib MP Daryl Maguire’s scam

NSW Corrections Minister Anthony Roberts’s office was dragged into Daryl Maguire’s property schemes, ICAC hears.

NSW Corrections Minister Anthony Roberts. Picture: Richard Dobson

NSW Corrections Minister Anthony Roberts’s office was dragged into Daryl Maguire’s property schemes after the former Liberal MP pushed the then planning minister’s chief-of-staff to intervene in independent property panels.

Emails tendered at an Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry into the former Wagga Wagga MP show Mr Maguire told Mr Roberts’s adviser Rob Vellar that there were “a lot of shift characters” applying for a position on the state’s Independent Assessment Panels.

The selection process for the panels, which adjudicate development proposals, is meant to be arms length.

Mr Vellar initially rebuffed Mr Maguire, telling him: “That’s bloody ridiculous. Stay out of it.”

He later responded asking for a list of the names of the “shifty people” sending two names provided by Mr Maguire to a senior member of the Planning Department.

Mr Vellar was expected to be a witness at the inquiry on Wednesday, but will instead appear at a later date.

There is no suggestion that Mr Vellar or Mr Roberts had any involvement in Mr Maguire’s property scheme.

The Operation Keppel probe has previously heard that Mr Maguire repeatedly misused his parliamentary position between 2012 and 2018 in pursuit of his own business interest and those of his associates.

Mr Maguire, the inquiry heard, sent racing identity Louise Waterhouse the personal email address of Gladys Berejiklian, telling her to “rub her ego” to overcome development issues.

He is also accused of taking a fee for “opening doors” by arranging calls with former premier Barry O’Farrell.

The inquiry heard he tried to influence the office of the then roads minister Melinda Pavey, but failed.

Earlier this week, property developer Joseph Alha conceded he had mentioned the IHAP applicants to Mr Maguire and mentioned to him their appointments could be detrimental to his business interests.

“These people, I had no access to them and they were shut off. So you couldn’t get to them, no matter what,” Mr Alha told Mr Maguire, the inquiry heard.

“So if you weren’t part of the Labor Party, there was no access to these people and they just made life difficult for anyone that wasn’t part of their crew or gang.”

The corruption inquiry heard Mr Maguire’s son, James Maguire, called his electorate officer Sarah Vasey in the middle of an ICAC raid to tell her to finish destroying evidence — weeks after his father admitted a USB containing his personal documents had an “unfortunate accident”.

“It was clear to you that the instructions to you, and to the office more generally, was to get rid of everything … and by get rid of everything, that was documents and it was electronic data, is that correct? Mr Robertson asked.

“Yes,” Mr Maguire’s former staffer replied.

Ms Vasey said James Maguire told her: “They’re here, they’re in the house”. “I cannot recall specifically what he said but along the lines of if there was anything in the office, to do something with it,” she told the inquiry.

However, she said Mr Maguire had instructed her to begin destroying electronic and physical documents in July 2018, weeks before he was forced to resign as a result of a separate ICAC inquiry known as Operation Dasher.

The ICAC also heard alle­gations that Mr Maguire may have improperly used his role “and the diplomatic weight” of his chairmanship of the Asia Pacific Friendship Group to pursue deals across China, Australia and the South Pacific.