Gladys Berejiklian looks uncomfortable as she’s questioned about ex-lover Darly Maguire during

NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has been peppered with questions about her relationship with former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire at a budget estimates hearing.

Gladys Berejiklian has faced a barrage of questions about her five-year covert relationship with disgraced MP Daryl Maguire at a fiery budget estimates hearing.

At times the NSW premier looked uncomfortable and flushed as she was grilled about her ex-lover, who she was in a relationship with until last year.

An Independent Commission Against Corruption investigation into the former Wagga Wagga Liberal MP is ongoing, and the premier appeared as a witness during hearings last year.

The premier is not accused of any wrongdoing, but on Thursday was repeatedly asked about the timing of her relationship with Mr Maguire and why she didn’t declare it earlier.

Labor’s Adam Searle accused Ms Berejiklian of failing to declare a conflict of interest when she met with her then lover when she was the NSW treasurer.

The 2016 meeting was to discuss the funding of a highway 140km from Mr Maguire’s electorate, but within metres of his new investment property at Ivanhoe.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Mr Maguire paid $8,000 for the property a few hundred metres from the Cobb Highway in far western NSW.

Mr Searle accused the premier of making decisions to fund the project that would ‘benefit’ her ‘boyfriend’.

Ms Berejiklian said the suggestion was ‘a disgusting proposition’, laughable, wrong, ‘and frankly offensive’.

She said the decision to fund the highway was one for the roads minister, and the government – with Labor’s support – had determined the highway was a priority project several years before.

Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) was asked if her close personal relationship with Daryl Maguire (left) started as early as 2013

But Mr Searle said Ms Berejiklian should have declared her relationship with her colleague before awarding more than $40,000 in grants to his electorate.

‘How can you make a decision to allocate taxpayers dollars without disclosing that relationship?’ he asked.

‘It lacks probity and it lacks integrity? Doesn’t it?’

The premier hit back.

‘What you are suggesting is offensive … I’ve never ever been accused of wrongdoing,’ she said.

Adam Searle (pictured) asked Ms Berejiklian why she hadn’t disclosed her covert relationship with Daryl Maguire earlier

Labor MP Adam Searle posted this statement to Facebook after the budget estimate meeting

Ms Berejiklian insisted she had always acted in the public interest and had not done anything wrong, and that all funding arrangements had to go through her department.

Mr Searle also asked when her relationship with Mr Maguire had begun.

‘Both you and Mr Maguire said you were in a close personal relationship from at least 2015 until at least August 2020 … Mr Maguire says that relationship could have started as early as 2013 – that’s correct isn’t it? ‘

The premier responded saying: ‘Those matters have been canvassed.’

But Mr Searle pressed the point.

‘Please be responsive and direct … Which is it? Is it 2013?’

Mr Searle accused the premier of making decisions to fund a project that would ‘benefit’ her ‘boyfriend’

Ms Berejiklian dismissed the question saying she had responded to the question during last year’s ICAC hearings.

She was also asked why she took annual leave on the day Mr Maguire was scheduled to appear at ICAC on July 13, 2018.

Shooters, Fishers and Farmers MLC Robert Borsak also weighed in on the issue of timing.

‘Surely premier, Mr Maguire, your secret lover, would have given you a special briefing before he appeared before ICAC?’

‘Absolutely not,’ Ms Berejiklian replied.

The hearing continues.