Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s secret lover Daryl Maguire in corruption scandal

Senior Liberal MPs are publicly standing by Gladys Berejiklian but reserving judgment after yesterday’s bombshell ICAC hearing.

Gladys Berejiklian has vowed to continue as NSW Premier despite a humiliating appearance at a corruption hearing that has shocked her ministers, revealing a secret five-year relationship with a disgraced former Liberal MP facing corruption allegations.

Senior Liberal MPs were publicly standing by Ms Berejiklian on Monday night, but reserving judgment after the Independent Commission Against Corruption heard ­secretly recorded telephone conversations in which then Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire discussed with the Premier intimate details about his finances and lobbying for developers, including being paid commissions on land deals.

The appearance has plunged Ms Berejiklian’s government into its deepest crisis, with the “very private” NSW Premier forced to concede that she had “stuffed up” her personal life.

“If I had done something wrong I would be the first one to consider my position, but I haven’t,” Ms Berejiklian said after leaving the ICAC hearing.

Former prime minister Malcolm Turnbull told Radio National on Tuesday that Ms Berejiklian should “certainly not” resign and that “she fell in love with the wrong guy,’’.

“Gladys is one of the most diligent leaders in Australia today, she is diligent, she is honest,” Mr Turnbull said. “She’s not Robinson Crusoe — she’s human. She fell in love with the wrong guy.”

Minister for Transport Andrew Constance said there is no reason Ms Berejiklian should resign, insisting she has done nothing wrong. “It was a personal relationship and the ICAC put the question to her yesterday and she has done absolutely nothing wrong and that’s the key point,” he told Sunrise on Seven.

“She is not going anywhere ... she is going to continue to be the rocksolid Premier she is. She is wonderful.”

ICAC’s Operation Keppel ­inquiry is investigating Mr ­Maguire’s business dealings while he was in office, alleging he used his position to help property developers including the prominent Waterhouse racing family.

Ms Berejiklian told the inquiry she was in a years-long relationship with Mr Maguire until ­August, even after he resigned from the Liberal Party over separate corruption claims.

Mr Maguire will be called to appear on Wednesday.

“He was a colleague for 15 years, he was a colleague I trusted … and that developed into a close personal relationship,” Ms Berejiklian said. “I would never do anything to jeopardise my service to the people of this state … and have a very clear ability to separate my private life from what I do in the public interest.”

Daryl Maguire with Gladys Berejiklian

Taped phone conversations, however, showed Mr Maguire discussing with Ms Berejiklian his endless financial challenges. While she played down the relationship as not being of “sufficient” status to disclose to her family, in at least one call she referred to the former MP as her “numero uno”.

The 2017 conversations ­revealed Ms Berejiklian told Mr Maguire she didn’t “need to know” about his “little friend” shortly after he told her to expect a meeting request from a developer.

In another, Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian that the $330m sale of a development site owned by the Waterhouse family next to the Western Sydney Airport site was close to being completed.

“I don’t need to know about that bit,” Ms Berejiklian said, according to the tape.

When asked about that conversation on Monday, Ms Berejiklian said: “I have no direct recollection, I can only surmise, but I probably would have firstly not regarded it as interesting to me.”

In a 2014 text message exchange, when Ms Berejiklian was transport minister, Mr Maguire told her one of his “contacts sold a motel” for $5.8m “so I should make 5k”. “Congrats!!! Great News!! Woo hoo,” Ms Berejiklian replied, asking what his commission was.

“Sharing with Chinese business partner so commission is 20k usually its 50%of (sic) that but I will only ask for 25% cause uts (sic) such a small sale,” Mr Maguire responded.

Ms Berejiklian later said she had assumed Mr Maguire would make his own disclosures about his business interests. “I always assumed, rightly or wrongly, that he was making full disclosures when he needed to,” she said.

As Ms Berejiklian remained in the witness box on Monday, Liberal MPs began to mobilise, with some calling her leadership “terminal” and suggesting she would need to quit. Potential successors discussed among Liberal MPs included Treasurer Dominic Perrottet, Attorney-General Mark Speakman and Planning Minister Rob Stokes. But senior ministers — including Mr Perrottet, Health Minister Brad Hazzard and Transport Minister Andrew Constance — later publicly backed her leadership.

The ICAC had heard Mr ­Maguire was having difficulties paying debts from separating with his wife Maureen.

Mr Maguire was attempting to leverage the business deals in a bid to find a career after his planned retirement in 2019 — so he could begin a public relationship with Ms Berejiklian.

It was proposed several times this meant Ms Berejiklian had at least a passing interest in the state of Mr Maguire’s finances, which she denied.

Ms Berejiklian said she believed Mr Maguire and his wife had separated when they began seeing each other in 2015.

The inquiry also heard that Mr Maguire gave Ms Berejiklian’s personal email address to Louise Waterhouse when she was ­attempting to obtain planning permission for her property, urging her not to mention him because it would be “ICACable”.

Despite sacking him in 2018, Ms Berejiklian said she continued her relationship with Mr Maguire on “compassionate grounds”. He resigned in August 2018 after a separate ICAC inquiry revealed he accepted a commission from a property developer.

“He was extremely angry with me, I was extremely angry with him, I sacked him,” Ms Berejiklian said. “But I also have to say … put yourself in my position. I’d known him for 15 years, he lost his career, his friends, he lost everything, and he was in a very dark place.”

The ICAC hearing had, until Monday, concentrated on Mr Maguire’s business interests between 2012 and 2018.

The inquiry heard allegations that Mr Maguire used his parliamentary office as part of an illegal cash-for-visa scheme. It had also heard Mr Maguire allegedly acted as a lobbyist to the Waterhouse family over the ­attempted sale of their development site which was encountering problems due to zoning restrictions.

The sale of the land would have earned Mr Maguire up to $690,000, something he discussed at times with Ms Berejiklian. Mr Maguire organised meetings on the developer’s behalf with parliament colleagues, including one that took place in a foyer outside Ms Berejiklian’s office.

The NSW Premier said she was unaware of that meeting and had no involvement in the matter.

She said this latest episode had been a “personal nightmare”.