Gladys Berejiklian, Daryl Maguire, ICAC: Bid to keep evidence behind closed doors

Gladys Berejiklian’s legal team has failed in its last ditch application to keep evidence from her secret boyfriend, disgraced ex-Liberal MP Daryl Maguire, kept private at the corruption inquiry into the former premier.

Mr Maguire has now begun to give evidence to the Independent Commission Against Corruption. 

ICAC counsel Scott Robertson is asking Mr Maguire about a phone call he made while he was an MP which was recorded by ICAC investigators. 

Mr Maguire admitted that he attempted to get confidential information from other MPs about land in Cawdor in the Wollondilly Shire to assist his property developer friend William Leong.

‘I asked their view on what they thought would happen,’ Mr Maguire said.

In calling for a private session, barrister Sophie Callan said she had ‘personal privacy concerns of the highest order’ for Ms Berejiklian.

She said no public service would be served by ‘plumbing the depths’ and wanted to prevent any ‘humiliation and harm’ to her client.   

Ms Callan told ICAC Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl, SC, who is presiding over the inquiry, that she has a discretion to hold part of the hearing in private.

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian’s legal team has made a last ditch bid to keep her former lover’s evidence to ICAC heard in private

Ms McColl asked Ms Callan her what private details she was referring to. 

‘Hallmarks or indications at the level of commitment’ in that relationship, replied Ms Callan. 

She also called for the non-publication of any evidence held in such a private session.  

Jim Harrowell, a member of Mr Maguire’s legal team, said he supports the application. 

‘A private hearing is more appropriate,’ Mr Harrowell said. 

Mr Robertson called for the application to be refused.

‘A public inquiry is to be held in public,’ he said. 

He added that having a private session would risk it ‘becoming a public inquiry in name only’.

Mr Robertson argued that the hearing should be able to publicly delve into the nature of the relationship between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire because the former premier openly gave interviews to the press after a previous ICAC hearing a year ago about how she planned to marry him. 

Responding, Ms Callan said ‘Mr Robertson has not advance advanced any cogent or persuasive reasons’ not to hold the session in private. 

Sophie Callan (pictured), who is representing Gladys Berejiklian, arrives at the ICAC hearing in Sydney on Thursday

Ms McColl adjourned the hearing to consider her position. When she returned she announced that she had rejected the application for a private hearing. 

The ICAC is, in part, investigating if Ms Berejiklian engaged in conduct ‘liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct’ by Mr Maguire. 

On Monday, former deputy NSW premier John Barilaro told the ICAC that Ms Berejiklian should have disclosed her secret relationship with Mr Maguire, who at the time was the Liberal MP for Wagga Wagga. 

Ms Callan sought to turn the tables on Mr Barilaro, asking if he had disclosed relationships of his own.

Mr Barilaro said he ‘would have’ disclosed any relationships, including family links.

‘What about any other intimate personal relationships?’ Ms Callan asked.

‘That’s a hard question because my relationships are with my family,’ Mr Barilaro said.

Daily Mail Australia is not suggesting Mr Barilaro has done anything improper in his personal or professional lives.

Ms Callan was one of 26 NSW barristers to be appointed senior counsel last year. She is best known known for prosecuting former Labor ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald over matters arising from ICAC inquiries.