A series of Gladys Berejiklian’s closest confidants have given evidence to a corruption inquiry about the moments the then-NSW Premier confessed her secret relationship with disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire to them.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption hearing into the former NSW premier heard from Neil Harley that he spoke with Ms Berejiklian after she was summonsed to give evidence at a different ICAC investigation last year.
‘It was a very difficult conversation for both of us,’ he said, adding that the former premier is ‘inherently a very private person’.
‘We didn’t go into detail about when (the relationship with Mr Maguire) … commenced and when it finished,’ he said. ‘We talked in broad terms about the nature of the relationship.’
Another former chief of staff to Ms Berejiklian later told the ICAC that on Friday 13 July 2018 the then premier called her and told her ‘she’d been close in the past with Mr Maguire’.
Sarah Cruickshank said she thought the call was unusual as Mr Berejiklian was on leave at the time.
It was the day it was revealed that Mr Maguire was a person of interest to ICAC.
Gladys Berejiklian (pictured) checks her phone while out for a walk in Sydney
Of the three senior former staffers who gave evidence on Tuesday, Ms Cruikshank was the only one who knew the pair had been in a relationship before October last year.
ICAC counsel Scott Robertson asked if she was ‘quite clear’ in her mind that it was a historical relationship before Ms Berejiklian became premier?
‘Quite clear,’ she replied.
Mr Harley told the commission he subsequently discovered the relationship had ‘continued on for a lot longer than I had anticipated’ and ‘it was more recent’ than he thought.
Gladys’s confidant and former chief of staff Neil Harley
He said if he had previously known about the relationship, he and others ‘might have provided advice to her about how that situation could appropriately be managed’.
The ICAC also heard that in an email from August 20, 2018, Mr Harley said then premier Ms Berejiklian wanted to ‘push’ a plan to award millions of dollars in funding to the for a recital hall in the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in Wagga Wagga.
Mr Maguire had quit politics a month earlier after giving evidence at an earlier ICAC inquiry, resulting in a by-election.
The commission has heard the recital hall was one of the projects Mr Maguire had pushed hard for in the pursuit of funding.
Mr Harley said in the email to colleagues in Ms Berejiklian’s office that ‘I personally don’t want to push this project but the premier did’.
Mr Maguire’s testimony at a corruption hearing into former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has been delayed due to ‘investigative reasons’.
The ICAC is, in part, investigating if Ms Berejiklian engaged in conduct ‘liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct’ by former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire, with whom she was in a secret relationship at the time.
Gladys Berejiklian’s former secret boyfriend Daryl Maguire was called ‘a pain in the arse … (like) a dog with a bone,’ in evidence given by former deputy premier John Barilaro to ICAC on Monday
Sophie Callan, representing Ms Berejiklian said ICAC has taken evidence from ‘seven men’ about whether the former premier was in a position of conflict in light of her relationship with Mr Maguire between 2015 and 2018.
The delayed start on Tuesday may have been due to a change in the witness list timetable. Mr Maguire has been switched from Wednesday to Thursday.
Mr Robertson said: ‘I don’t intend to call Mr Maguire tomorrow’ due to ‘investigative reasons’.
Sarah Cruickshank, a former chief of staff to Gladys Berejiklian, arrives at ICAC on Tuesday
Ms Berejiklian’s testimony was initially set to be heard on Thursday and Friday, but her appearance on Thursday has now been cancelled and she will probably have to return to the ICAC on Monday.
Her former chief of staff, Ms Cruickshank said the relationship between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire was described to her as a historical relationship or friendship before Ms Berejiklian became premier in January 2017, and not one that had continued.
Ms Cruickshank was under the impression that the then premier’s relationship with Mr Maguire was not ongoing, and she believed it had already ended.
Ms Berejiklian told the ICAC last year that the relationship started in 2015 and did not end until 2018.
Ms Cruickshank said staff were told after Mr Maguire’s appearance at the ICAC in 2018 that if they had ‘things to report about Mr Maguire they should’.
Earlier on Tuesday, Brad Burden, a former director of strategy to then-premier Ms Berejiklian, was asked if he would have done anything differently about a funding proposal favoured by Mr Maguire if he had known about his relationship with the former premier.
Brad Burden (pictured), a former adviser to Gladys Berejiklian, gave evidence by video link to the ICAC on Tuesday
He said the thought ‘advice would have been sought around any potential conflicts of interest and how to manage them’.
Gary Barnes, secretary of the Department of Regional NSW, who gave evidence last week, has been recalled for further questions on Wednesday.
Ms Callan said she is seeking procedural fairness regarding the ICAC’s investigation into whether or not Ms Berejiklian complied with a legal duty to report suspected corruption to the watchdog.
Section 11 of the ICAC Act states that a NSW government minister and other public officials have a duty to report any matter the person suspects on reasonable grounds concerns or may concern corrupt conduct.
Ms Callan said Ms Berejiklian’s lawyers wrote to the ICAC asking for further information about this but had received a ‘wholly unsatisfactory’ response.
She said Ms Berejiklian was ‘entitled to know what it is that is alleged in respect of section 11’.
In reply, Mr Robertson said ‘these proceedings are not a trial’ and the correspondence contained a ‘fundamental misapprehension’ about ICAC’s role, which is that it was seeking to find the truth and was not a prosecutorial body.
Ms Callan added that the watchdog had received evidence from ‘seven men’ to date about whether Ms Berejiklian was in a position of conflict in light of her secret relationship with Mr Maguire between 2015 and 2018.
She indicated that Ms Berejiklian’s team would argue this evidence could not ‘rationally bear’ on Assistant Commissioner Ruth McColl, SC’s assessment as to whether a conflict of interest in fact existed.
Ms McColl did not accept that ICAC needed to change the course its inquiry was taking.
Ms Berejiklian denies any wrongdoing.
Gladys Berejiklian (pictured right) is under investigation by ICAC for her conduct while NSW premier in relation to her former boyfriend, ex-MP Daryl Maguire (pictured left)
Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian (pictured left) with Daryl Maguire (right)
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