‘Legit’: Ayres tells ICAC he had ‘no deal with Daryl’

Minister Stuart Ayres has denied there was a “particular deal or arrangement” with Gladys Berejiklian or her secret boyfriend Daryl Maguire to give millions of dollars to a gun club against expert advice.

Minister Stuart Ayres has denied there was a “particular deal or arrangement” with Gladys Berejiklian or her secret boyfriend Daryl Maguire to give millions of dollars to a gun club against expert advice.

It comes as the anti-corruption watchdog releases an email in which Mr Ayres assured his staff the gun club project “is legit”.

Mr Ayres was Sports Minister in 2016 when Wagga Wagga MP Maguire lobbied his own government on behalf of the Australian Clay Target Association (ACTA), the Independent Commission Against Corruption heard on Friday.

Stuart Ayres arrives at ICAC today. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Adam Yip

The ICAC has questioned why Mr Ayres handed $40,000 to ACTA so they could prepare a formal business case that would help their application for government funding.

ACTA was after $5.5m to revamp its clubhouse and facilities and the business case would spell out exactly why it made sense for the NSW Government to kick in the millions.

The shooting club was willing to kick in $1.2m toward the upgrades, documents show.

Counsel Assisting the Commission Scott Robertson asked Minister Ayres why he cut a $40,000 cheque to an organisation so it could ask for more money — particularly when it had more than a million dollars in its coffers.

“We were considering it as a budget proposal,” Mr Ayres said.

“I thought the project had merit but it needed research, a business case, to take it forward.”

Mr Ayres said he believed the Office of Sport was to receive the funding to do the business case so the government could “validate” further funding.

The ICAC has heard then-Treasurer Berejiklian and Mr Ayres both backed the ACTA grant right through the funding process in 2016.

Minister Ayres said he couldn’t recall specific “interactions” between himself and then-Treasurer Berejiklian about the grant but said it was “possible” they had spoken about the ACTA submission.

“Did you and Mr Maguire have any deal or arrangement in relation to this submission?” Mr Robertson asked.

“No,” the Minister responded.

“Did you and Ms Berejiklian have any particular deal or arrangement in relation to this submission?” Mr Robertson asked again.

“No,” Mr Ayres said.

Then NSW Sports Minister Stuart Ayres MP and Daryl Maguire inspecting the plans and site for the new ACTA Function Centre.

In December bureaucrats across multiple departments concluded the business case for the club didn’t stack up, the ICAC has heard.

Chris Hanger, who was tasked with assessing the grant for Deputy Premier John Barilaro, concluded the project would cost the taxpayer more than it would benefit them, he told the ICAC on Thursday.

But, the bureaucrats have told the ICAC, pressure was coming down from Ms Berejiklian’s office to get the project across the line so they revisited the business case.

One Berejiklian staffer told the ICAC, in a closed-door meeting, that Maguire had met with the then-Treasurer and discussed the grant.

The staffers have all said they had no idea Ms Berejiklian was dating Maguire and it would have changed their approach to the grant had they been informed.

Ultimately the ACTA grant went before the Cabinet Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) and was approved for $5.5m funding in December 2016.

Former Premier Mike Baird told the ICAC he raised concerns about the project in the ERC meeting, which was chaired by Ms Berejiklian, but the project was wholly endorsed.

Treasurer Berejiklian, he said, raised no conflicts of interests during the meeting.

Mr Ayres said the professional relationship between Ms Berejiklian and Maguire appeared no different to any other in parliament.

The ICAC took Mr Ayres through an email chain between the minister and his staffers sent after the ERC approval in December 2016.

“The project is legit,” Mr Ayres told two of his staffers.

Mr Ayres told the ICAC, on Friday, that he wrote that because one of his staff was confused about the status of the gun club funding.

The $5.5m had been approved, he said, but under certain conditions including producing another business case.

Mr Ayres, in that email, said he and Ms Berejiklian should write to Maguire and inform him of the status of the funding.

One of his staffers responded saying someone should “someone should talk Daryl off the ledge”.

Mr Ayres suggested that staffer had likely talked to Maguire about how the ACTA funding would be announced.

The ICAC has heard from former Premier Baird that Maguire was at times “aggressive” and “abusive” toward staffers and MPs.

Originally published as ‘Legit’: Ayres tells ICAC he had ‘no deal with Daryl’