Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire: Inside the secret relationship that ruined former NSW premier
A recorded call between former premier Gladys Berejiklian and disgraced MP Daryl Maguire has revealed shocking new details about their dynamic.
Intercepted conversations between the former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and ousted ex-MP Daryl Maguire revealed insight into the dynamic of their relationship.
In a report handed down last year, ICAC found their exchanges showed the “intensity” and “deep feelings of love” between the pair, and one recorded phone call captured the moment Mr Maguire pushed Ms Berejiklian to concede “even when you are the premier, I am the boss”.
Ms Berejiklian’s failure to disclose her relationship was at the centre of Independent Commission Against Corruption’s damning findings against her.
She has maintained she always acted in the best interests of the state and on Friday the NSW Court of Appeal, in a 2-1 decision, rejected her bid to overturn ICAC’s findings.
Ms Berejiklian disclosed her secret relationship with Mr Maguire while giving evidence to the ICAC in 2020.
When the corruption watchdog delivered its findings in June last year, it that said both Mr Maguire and Ms Berejiklian were guilty of “serious corrupt conduct”.
In the hefty report, which consisted of two volumes and nearly 700 pages, the “close personal relationship” between Mr Maguire and Ms Berejiklian was forensically investigated by ICAC.
Central to the probe was whether it created a “conflict of interest” between the former premier’s public duty and private interests.
Ultimately, ICAC concluded that it did.
Conversations intercepted from “at least about mid-2014” suggested the relationship was “one of considerable intensity accompanied by mutual and deep feelings of love”.
This contradicts former evidence given by Ms Berejiklian that their relationship began around the time of the 2015 state election, with Mr Maguire agreeing they had an “on again/ off again” relationship from 2015.
The report said the messages included “plans for meals and drinks together after work, plans for holidays and attending social events together, references to Ms Berejiklian’s Sydney residence by both of them as ‘home’ and mundane domestic arrangements such as requests to pick up bread and things to eat.
ICAC said it obtained “hundreds” of texts and instant messages between the couple between July 2013 and August 2018, which were “exchanged every day or couple of days and often multiple times in a day,” it said.
Evidence presented to the inquiry dating back to April 2018 also found they had intended to make their relationship public after the 2019 state election, in which they would “possibly get married and go on holidays together”.
In one text exchange dated to April 12, 2018, Ms Berejiklian appeared to tell Mr Maguire she couldn’t do her job without him:
MAGUIRE: I am busy killing mmc you do your job and lead the state.
BEREJIKLIAN: I can’t without you.
MAGUIRE: I am your biggest supporter! Got your back go and do your job.
BEREJIKLIAN: But you are my family.
Other exchanges showed them referring to each other as “hokiss” – an Armenian term of endearment.
In a recorded phone call dating back to February 14, 2018, the pair discussed navigating Ms Berejiklian’s prominent role as the NSW Premier, in which she tells him “normally you’re the boss”.
BEREJIKLIAN: Because you know what I tell you why because normally you’re the boss and it’s hard when we have to switch it around that’s the truth.
MAGUIRE: Yeh but I am the boss, even when you’re the Premier.
BEREJIKLIAN: I know. So therefore it’s hard when I had to switch it around.
MAGUIRE: Glad even when you are the Premier I am the boss all right.
BEREJIKLIAN: Yes I know.
Ultimately, the report found the exchanges were “consistent with physical and emotional intimacy and a romantic relationship” between the pair.
ICAC finds Berejiklian breached code of conduct
In last year’s damning report, the ICAC confirmed Ms Berejiklian had engaged in “serious corrupt conduct”.
The report said Ms Berejiklian breached public trust between 2016 to 2017 by failing to disclose her five-year relationship with Mr Maguire.
The watchdog said it could have had the “potential to influence the performance of her public duty”.
Ms Berejiklian was also found to have failed her ministerial duties by not disclosing her relationship.
She also breached her duties under s 11 of the ICAC Act by not notifying ICAC “of her suspicion” that Mr Maguire had engaged in corrupt conduct, or behaviour that might have been considered corrupt
Berejiklian reveals ‘close personal relationship’
Speaking at the ICAC probe in October 2020, Ms Berejiklian revealed she had been in a “close personal relationship” with the former Wagga Wagga MP since 2015.
Amid questions about whether she was aware of Mr Maguire’s potentially corrupt dealings, she said their relationship had started around the 2015 state election, and had only ended a few months before.
“I would like to say at the outset that Mr Maguire was a colleague of 15 years, he was someone that I trusted,” she said at the time.
“And that developed into a close personal relationship.”
At the outset of their relationship, Ms Berejiklian was NSW Treasurer, while Mr Maguire was the Liberal MP for Wagga Wagga.
Ms Berejiklian would ascend to the NSW premiership in January 2017, during her relationship with Mr Maguire, while he resigned from his post in 2018 following revelations sparked during a separate ICAC inquiry.
Gladys: ‘I’ll never love again’
In radio interviews with KIIS FM’s Kyle and Jackie O, and Ben Fordham on 2GB, she maintained Mr Maguire wasn’t her boyfriend or partner, but conceded there was love between the two.
“It wasn’t a normal relationship, he wasn’t my boyfriend. I certainly hoped he would be, but it wasn’t sufficiently substantial. I didn’t want to introduce anyone to my close network unless I knew,” she told Fordham.
“I was certainly in love with him … but no, he wasn’t my boyfriend.”
Speaking about Mr Maguire, she said she had incorrectly trusted him to “do the right thing”.
“As much as he fooled me, he fooled a lot of other people as well, and that’s what people like that do.
“That’s what’s really hurtful, because you trust someone, you’ve known them for more than a decade, and then this happens. It’s just a big shock.”
The public support was overwhelmingly in favour of the premier, with many saying it had humanised her.
Even those in political opposition, like Federal Labor Ministers Bill Shorten and Tanya Plibersek declined to use the blunder as political ammunition.
Berejiklian pulled into Operation Keppel
While Ms Berejiklian denied all allegations of wrongdoing, her resignation as Premier came about an hour after ICAC announced it was expanding its inquiry to include her role in Mr Maguire’s alleged misconduct.
ICAC expanded Operation Keppel to investigate whether Ms Berejiklian breached public trust in helping Mr Maguire advance projects in Wagga Wagga. Central to their probe was the $5.5m grant to the Australian Clay Target Association and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music.
During Ms Berejiklian’s emotional final press conference as premier, she said she had “always acted with the highest level of integrity”.
“History will demonstrate that I have always executed my duties with the highest degree of integrity for the benefit of the people of NSW, who I have had the privilege to serve,” she said.
With Ms Berejiklian’s public profile at record heights due to her daily Covid press conferences, people flooded her social media accounts with messages of support.
Her electoral office in Willoughby was also inundated with flowers, tokens and messages calling for her to stay on as premier.
Phone calls played during 2020 probe
Part of the evidence that sparked the investigation into Ms Berejiklian’s actions included a series of recorded phone calls between herself and Mr Maguire.
During the 2020 hearings, it was revealed the MP had given out Ms Berejiklian’s personal email, and used her office in a 2017 meeting with racing heiress and developer Louise Waterhouse and former roads minister Melinda Pavey.
The meeting was related to a plot of land owned by Ms Waterhouse near Badgerys Creek in western Sydney, which they wanted rezoned.
Mr Maguire was attempting to broker the sale of the land to Chinese developer Country Garden for about $330m. While it didn’t go through, the deal could have landed him about $690,000 in commission.
In one damning bugged phone call between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire, where they discussed the development, the premier said of the deal: “I don’t need to know about that bit.”
“No, you do not need to know that,” Mr Maguire replied.
When asked during the hearing, Ms Berejiklian defended herself by saying: “I wouldn’t have registered a concern at that stage, because he was always talking big about deals and they always seemed to fall through”.
Texts between the two presented to the commission also revealed he called her “hokiss,” a term of endearment in Armenian – Ms Berejiklian’s first language.
Fronting media after she was grilled by Barrister Scott Robertson, Ms Berejiklian called the public revelations her “personal nightmare”.
“I am an extremely private person and without question, I stuffed up in my personal life,” she said.
“If I had done something wrong, I would be the first one to consider my position. But I haven’t.”
Maguire quizzed about relationship
Taking the stand in October 2021, Ms Berejiklian said their relationship didn’t have enough “sufficient significance” for it to be disclosed to colleagues.
When taking the stand, however, Mr Maguire said it had all the “hallmarks of a relationship”.
Asked whether he had a “close emotional attachment” to Ms Berejiklian, and if the pair loved each other, he responded in the affirmative.
He also said he had a key to her house, and had discussed “having a child” and getting married with Ms Berejiklian.
Tapped phone calls between the pair also revealed the ways Mr Maguire lobbied the premier for the approval of projects in Wagga Wagga, including a hospital and a conservatorium.
While Mr Maguire told ICAC he didn’t “compartmentalise” in his working life and private relationship with the premier, he said he lobbied everyone.
“No, I lobbied everybody, anyone that had the slightest attachment to whatever it was I was proposing, I lobbied,” he said.
Top staffer told relationship ‘in the past’
During a 2021 ICAC hearing, further details were revealed about how much Ms Berejiklian’s inner circle knew about her relationship with Mr Maguire.
Fronting ICAC, former deputy premier John Barilaro also told investigators that “no one” in the NSW parliament knew about the secret relationship.
“I can assure you, no one guessed it. It was a shock to everybody,” he told ICAC’s assisting counsel, Scott Robertson.
Her final chief-of-staff, Neil Harley, said he first became aware of their relationship in August 2020, just before the then-premier was summoned to give testimony to ICAC in a secret interview, and five months before the disclosure became public.
“It was a very difficult discussion about a very private matter for the former premier, who is inherently a very private person,” Mr Harley told ICAC.
“We talked in terms of the nature of the relationship and the fact it went beyond what you might normally regard as a relationship between a premier and other members of parliament.”
In a subsequent hearing, it was revealed her former chief-of-staff Sarah Cruickshank had known about her boss’ relationship as early as July 2018.
Ms Cruickshank was informed in a phone call made just after Mr Maguire’s name was implicated in ICAC’s Operation Dasha, which examined allegations against former Canterbury city councillors.
Mr Maguire was caught up in the probe after he was secretly recorded discussing property deals involving a Chinese developer over the phone with a then-councillor.
He was referred to the Director of Public Prosecution for possible criminal charges for giving false evidence to the inquiry when the report was handed down in 2021.
On Monday, Mr Maguire was charged with giving false and misleading evidence in relation to the inquiry.
“I know the primary reason she was calling me was because a mutual friend had said, ‘You have to let Sarah know, she’s your chief of staff, she needs to know’,” Ms Cruickshank told the commission at a hearing for Operation Keppel.
During her evidence, Ms Cruickshank said she was told the relationship had ended before Ms Berejiklian became premier. It wasn’t until her boss was pulled into another hearing in October 2020, that the staffer realised this wasn’t true.
When asked whether Ms Cruickshank believed Ms Berejiklian had originally lied, the former staffer replied: “There’s no different way to characterise it”.
“I ALWAYS WORKED MY HARDEST”
On Friday, in a 2-1 decision, the Court of Appeal dismissed Ms Berejiklian’s application for judicial review.
Her appeal centered on the legal argument that former judge Ruth McColl, who oversaw the ICAC hearing acted outside the limits of her authority.
Ms McColl’s term had expired in October 2022 before she delivered the report last year.
However the Court of Appeal found the report was issued on behalf of the commission.
In a statement, Ms Berejiklian said she was constrained by the “limited” challenges which can be made to ICAC’s findings.
“As the Court noted, the ICAC Act does not permit a ‘merits’ review of the findings of ICAC,” she said.
She also noted that one of the three judges who oversaw the appeal - Court of Appeal President Julie Ward - said she would have upheld the appeal.
“Serving the people of NSW was an honour and privilege which I never took for granted,” she said.
“I always worked my hardest to look after the welfare and interests of the people of NSW.”
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