The ‘situationship’ that sealed Gladys Berejiklian’s fate

Gladys Berejiklian and Arthur Moses getting coffee in Northbridge.

Romeo and Juliet. Charles and Camilla. Gladys and Daryl.

There are great love stories and then there are relationships which are not of “sufficient substance”. That is how the former – and also corrupt – Premier Gladys Berejiklian first described her relationship with disgraced MP Daryl Maguire.

You just have to read more of their private conversations – laid bare by the Commission on Thursday – to understand why she was hesitant to take their arrangement to the next level.

They talked marriage, babies and she did, in fact, give him a key to her house.

Disclosure never came up, but a disturbing power dynamic did while she was Premier.

Following a dinner there was an incident between the pair when they were out one evening, during which Ms Berejiklian was allegedly “mean” to Mr Maguire. He called her and said: ”I am the boss, even when you‘re the Premier”.

A depiction Ms Berejiklian agreed with.

“When you have a position of power, it’s very difficult in a personal relationship to address that position of power, and that’s what I was referring to. It’s very personal and private. It’s got nothing to do with work. It’s actually making him feel that because I was the boss during the day, that I wouldn’t necessarily be exercising that relationship in the private relationship,” she told private hearings.

Former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian with her secret lover and subordinate, Daryl Maguire.

Berejiklian will have to live with the fact she threw away her political career for a man who better resembled the dodgy dad from Muriel’s Wedding.

Gladys’ former (unofficial) EA responds to the #ICAC news pic.twitter.com/DyGIxpJ8Ey

— Jenna Clarke (@jennamclarke) June 29, 2023

“She’s in a terrible half way house between being exonerated and being recommended for charges, that‘s a terrible place be,” former Crown Prosecutor Margaret Cunneen said after Ms Berejiklian was found to have engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” in her dealings with her former colleague after she failed to disclose their personal relationship and her “suspicions” that her former lover was up to no good.

She’ll also have to privately reconcile that Mr Maguire, a man who has been called a “pain in the arse” by former Deputy Premier John Barilaro and referred to as “a grub from Wagga” by Labor powerbroker Graham Richardson, had the audacity to tell her – the leader referred to as “the woman who saved Australia” during the pandemic, the same woman who dressed as Superwoman for her 21st – “I am the boss”.

No wonder Ms Berejiklian didn’t want to be associated with him, publicly at least.

Embarrassing I know, but this is from my 21st (nearly 20). #MeAt20pic.twitter.com/sxMj290kBd

— Gladys Berejiklian (@GladysB) April 18, 2020

“It was hard to define because it wasn’t of a sufficient status … It wasn’t a traditional type of relationship,” she told The Daily Telegraph after her time in the ICAC witness box in 2020.

During that same interview she winced when words like “boyfriend” or “partner” were bandied about and also confirmed she had not only quit politics for good, but was also retiring from romance.

“I can formally say to people I’ve given up on love. I’m just going to say I have always put my job first, rightly or wrongly, and that will now continue indefinitely,” she said.

“It’s like I’m the main protagonist in a movie. It’s like I’m the feature and the film is going to end and my life is going to go back to normal but it will never be normal again.”

What started as a political thriller ended like a romantic comedy.
She has since found love again with powerful Sydney barrister Arthur Moses. The man who represented her for a time when she initially fronted the corruption watchdog.

Mr Maguire may have got a key to her house all those years ago but she is now renting out that Lower North Shore pad. Last year, Mr Moses purchased a property nearby last year. The couple are now regularly spotted out and about publicly displaying affection.