NSW ICAC turmoil: Gladys, her beau and two publican crims

Daryl Maguire arranged for Premier to meet publicans to ‘discuss gaming issues’ during a 2017 visit to his electorate.

Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire at the Board of Riverina Eastern Organisation of Councils event in Wagga Wagga on October 31, 2017. Picture: Facebook

It’s not the first time Gladys Berejiklian’s secret relationship with Daryl Maguire has landed her in political trouble.

On the day she posed up with Mr Maguire for a photograph during a trip to his electorate in October 2017, the then Wagga Wagga MP had arranged for the Premier to meet with three publicans to “discuss gaming issues”.

The issue erupted in parliament a few months later when it emerged two of the publicans had criminal histories: one for burning down a hotel, the other for illegal possession of poker machines.

The October 31 meeting came weeks after Mr Maguire was boasting to the Premier about his ability to leverage money from property developers by brokering deals for them in a conversation on September 7, recorded and replayed at ICAC this week.

Ms Berejiklian was grilled in question time in February 2018 about the nature of the discussion with the publicans and whether she retained confidence in Mr Maguire. The Premier parried the first question, saying she could not remember, and dodged the second entirely.

At the time, according to evidence given to ICAC, the couple had been in a clandestine relationship for more than 2½ years.

The disgraced former Liberal MP managed to squeeze the meeting in Ms Berejiklian’s diary while she was in his Riverina seat to see the Board of Riverina Eastern Regional Organisation of Councils. One of the men at the meeting, Gino Scutti, had received a suspended jail sentence after being convicted in 2013 of burning down the historic Family Hotel, in Carrathool, two hours’ drive west of Wagga Wagga, and claiming the insurance money. Another, Nick Tinning, had been fined $7500 after pleading guilty to illegally possessing five poker machines following an investigation by Liquor and Gaming NSW.

“On a visit to the Riverina community they met with me to discuss changes to (gaming regulations) by the previous Labor government,” Ms Berejiklian told NSW parliament.

“When members of the community ask to meet with me ... I will meet with them.

“They explained to me the hardship their families had faced in relation to changes in law. I didn’t know those individuals but I listened to their concerns.”

Gladys Berejiklian outside Parliament House in Sydney on Tuesday. Picture: Joel Carrett

ICAC recordings played at Ms Berejiklian’s Monday appearance showed Mr Maguire told her the previous month he had brokered a property deal that would help clear sizeable debts incurred by his divorce from his ex-wife, Maureen. “The good news is William-William tells me we’ve done our deal so hopefully that’s about half of all that gone now,” he told her during a telephone conversation on September 7, 2017, intercepted by ICAC. “I don’t need to know about that bit,” she replied. Maguire agreed: “No you don’t.”

The meeting in Wagga Wagga with the publicans was one of five Mr Maguire engineered between Ms Berejiklian and “external persons who seek to influence government policy or decisions” while she was treasurer and then Premier while they were together.

Ms Berejiklian told ICAC on Monday she had started seeing Mr Maguire around the time of the NSW election in late March 2015 and decided to cut ties with him only this August after being grilled during a private ICAC hearing about his dealings. She has rejected suggestions their relationship caused conflicts of interest and maintained she kept it secret only because she was a “private person” and did not consider it to be of “enough substance” to warrant making it public.

Asked about the recordings on Tuesday, Ms Berejiklian continued to deny she had any knowledge of her former beau’s business dealings. She dodged questions about her relationship with Mr Maguire when The Australian asked whether she met the former Liberal whip during an official trip she took to his electorate in the days after he was forced to quit NSW parliament.

Mr Maguire quit the Liberal Party on July 13, 2018, after admitting to ICAC he had sought payment to help broker a deal for a Chinese property developer. Ms Berejiklian was no longer his party leader by the time she visited Wagga Wagga that month.

Having held Wagga Wagga for almost 20 years, he initially resisted calls to vacate the seat but quit politics following the scandal. He notified the NSW Speaker’s office of his resignation as a member of parliament on Friday, July 27, forcing a by-election.

By the following week, Ms Berejiklian was in Wagga Wagga.

She had caught up with the city’s mayor, Greg Conkey, during a trip to Bathurst, four hours’ drive away, on Monday, July 18 and discussed “local issues” affecting Mr Maguire’s electorate with him before heading to Wagga Wagga herself.

Parliamentary records reveal she returned to Sydney from Wagga Wagga on a $291 Regional Express Airlines flight a couple of days later on August 1.

It is unclear when she arrived in Wagga Wagga as she did not claim any expenses for travelling to the city or accommodation there.

Ms Berejiklian’s office refused to be drawn on whether she saw Mr Maguire during the trip.

The Premier returned to Wagga Wagga five more times in the following month in the lead-up to a by-election on September 8, at which the Liberals lost the seat for the first time in more than half a century.