A stressed looking Gladys Berejiklian has arrived for her highly anticipated appearance at the corruption inquiry into her.
Outside the hearing, Ms Berejiklian said she will tell the Independent Commission Against Corruption she will ‘strenuously stress’ that she has always put the interests and her ‘love and support’ for the people of NSW first.
Her day at ICAC has finally come – after six months of private hearings, two weeks of public hearings and 500 pieces of evidence.
But she will be regretting having spoken so openly last year about her ‘close personal relationship’ with Daryl Maguire a year ago after she admitted the disgraced MP was her secret boyfriend at a previous Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry.
Shortly after shocking the state with her revelation, the then-NSW Premier seemingly spoke candidly about her doomed love affair with Mr Maguire with 2GB’s Ben Fordham, radio presenters Kyle and Jackie O and Sunday Telegraph gossip columnist Annette Sharp.
The interviews appeared to engender public sympathy for Ms Berejiklian – but they came back to bite her on Thursday when the counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, threw them back in her face with devastating results.
A stressed-looking Gladys Berejiklian arrived at the ICAC on Friday morning – breaking her silence outside court
Gladys Berejiklian gave selected media interviews after admitting her secret relationship with Daryl Maguire at a previous ICAC hearing
On Thursday morning, Ms Berejiklian’s legal team launched a last ditch application to have evidence from Mr Maguire kept private at the corruption inquiry into the former premier.
Sophie Callan, a barrister acting for Ms Berejiklian, told ICAC Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl, SC, who is presiding over the inquiry, that ‘hallmarks or indications at the level of commitment’ in the relationship with Mr Maguire should not be aired publicly.
ICAC counsel Scott Robertson said the application should 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.
Daryl Maguire, the former secret boyfriend of Gladys Berejiklian, said the couple talked about getting married and having a baby
Gladys Berejiklian (centre) with Kyle (right) and Jackie O (left) of KISS FM
Ms Berejiklian told the Kyle and Jackie O radio show that while revealing details about her personal relationship had been ‘humiliating and embarrassing’, it had made her feel ‘more human’.
‘I’m actually starting to feel even stronger after it all… It’s made me feel more human and vulnerable than I’ve ever felt before,’ she told the breakfast show hosts.
Responding to Sandilands’ question about whether she had ever ‘dabbled’ in a same sex relationship, Ms Berejiklian said: ‘I haven’t and I didn’t. Not that there is anything wrong with that.’
Sandilands said he understood why she’d want to keep the relationship private, given ‘secret sex is the best sex’, but the premier was hesitant to comment on the intimate details of her former relationship.
Ms Berejiklian told 2GB’s Ben Fordham she lacked experience in intimate relationships after dedicating so much of her life to politics.
‘It’s fair to say that on average I would probably have less experience than the average person, but that’s an excruciating thing to talk about,’ she said.
‘I’ve always been focused on my job and my work and my family and I haven’t really had time for a lot else to be honest…
‘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 said.
‘I was certainly in love with him… but no, he wasn’t my boyfriend.’
Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian’s day at ICAC has finally come
Ms Berejiklian told the Sunday Telegraph that ‘I’m still trying to process it. I feel like it’s someone else living this … 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.’
‘It was hard to define because it wasn’t of a sufficient status,’ she says ambiguously. ‘It wasn’t a traditional type of relationship.’
In a general press conference, she said ‘Without question I stuffed up in my personal life and I accept that.
‘It’s very difficult for someone in my position to have a private and personal life and I’m very upset at what has transpired. But I want to make this assurance to the people of New South Wales I have always put the public first.’
She added: ‘I want to state at the outset that had I known then what I know now clearly I would not have made those personal decisions that I did.
‘I trusted someone that I’d known for a long time and I feel really – really let down. I trusted him for a long time.’
There was little ambiguity at ICAC yesterday, when Mr Maguire gave evidence that he and the then premier had discussed getting married and having a child.
Perhaps if Ms Berejiklian had left her words at ICAC speak for themselves and not done media interviews afterwards in an attempt to save her job as NSW premier, the public might not have found out yesterday just how close and personal her relationship with Mr Maguire actually was.
***
Read more at DailyMail.co.uk