Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian at Monday's ICAC hearing (Image: ICAC)

Governments “threw money at seats in order to keep them”, a NSW corruption inquiry heard this morning. 

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian said at the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) that there was nothing unusual about a government spending money to retain a seat during a byelection.

Asked by counsel assisting the ICAC, Scott Robertson, whether she was interested in giving public money to projects for political reasons without necessarily being concerned about their merits, she said: “I don’t think they’re mutually exclusive.”

Giving $20 million to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music could have had “very huge benefits” for the community, Berejiklian said.

Robertson asked her if there had been any assessment done on the relative merits of funding this Wagga Wagga project or one in another part of the state and Berejiklian replied: “When it’s a byelection you’re only focusing on that seat.”

The $20 million has not yet been paid as the NSW government is waiting for a satisfactory business case. 

Berejiklian returned to the witness box this morning on the defence. She loudly and forcefully proclaimed that she was justified in trusting her former lover Daryl Maguire, who had been the Liberal member for Wagga Wagga from 1999 to 2018. 

Repeatedly questioned by Robertson and assistant commissioner Ruth McColl SC about why she hadn’t reported her suspicions about the disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP’s conduct, as required by the NSW ICAC Act, she became extremely defensive. 

“I didn’t suspect him of corrupt conduct,” she said over and over, despite overwhelming evidence of suspicious actions. In tapped phone calls from 2018, he tells her to download an encrypted messaging app and suggests she gets another mobile phone on which to have private conversations. 

Despite this, she had given him “the benefit of the doubt and the presumption of innocence”, ICAC heard.

Under section 11 of the act, public officials have a duty to report to ICAC any matter that the person suspects on reasonable grounds concerns or may concern corrupt conduct.

The transcript of the call, made July 7, 2018, shows the former premier had been very concerned about Maguire’s summons to a separate ICAC inquiry, Operation Dasha. She repeatedly sought assurances from him about what he had done and what they knew about him. 

The phone call lasted 19 minutes; in it, she asks him “is there anything to worry about?”, and “why are you being subpoenaed?”

When Maguire responds, “I think that Hawatt [a former local councillor] was to benefit from the skullduggery he was getting up to”, she responds, “Don’t, don’t talk… I don’t want to know any of that stuff.”

After this, she says, “What is it, what did the lawyer say? Did the lawyer say there was anything to worry about?” and then adds later, “why did he [ICAC employee] say he is summonsing you? 

Later, after he mentions the name of a property developer, she says, “who’s he, anyway I don’t want to know”, and then seeks reassurance from him about his probity: “Does your lawyer — so your lawyer doesn’t think there’s anything to worry about?” 

Basically, almost the entire conversation involves her asking him questions about his appearance before ICAC’s Operation Dasha and seeking reassurances from him that he has done nothing wrong. 

There is a legal concept that liability attaches to someone who “knew or ought to have known” something — that deliberately closing your ears to crucial knowledge does not absolve a person of responsibility. 

Berejiklian and Maguire have admitted to being in a “close personal relationship” from 2015; ICAC has heard differing accounts of when it ended — either 2018 or late 2020, depending on who is asked. 

The former NSW premier repeatedly told ICAC this morning that she had “no knowledge” of any wrongdoing by Maguire and did not consider that she had any information which needed to be reported to ICAC.

“Clearly this body had all that knowledge and information,” she said. “There was nothing that I could recall; nothing I retained. I’m not sure what I would have reported.

“I’m completely comfortable with who I am and what I’ve done, and my record.”

In the tapped call of July 7, 2018 Maguire says: “You need to get a private phone. [ICAC] could be taping your conversation with me right now.”

Four days later, Maguire texted her that he was “chatting with my friends on [encrypted messaging app] WeChat now”, and told her to download the app.

“OK I’ll try. What about WhatsApp, that’s easy too,” she replied.

“They can read texts but not the little green man [WeChat]; it leaves no trace,” Maguire said. 

Asked if this referred to the WeChat icon, Berejiklian said it could have but she had never used the app. She also said she had “never” had a second phone. 

Questioned about whether Maguire had taken steps to make his calls and texts more difficult to intercept, she said: “He may very well have. I just can’t remember. I didn’t do anything on my part.”

Berejiklian asked Maguire to resign from politics days after he gave evidence to Operation Dasha on July 13, 2018 about a potential money-making scheme to receive commissions from a property developer. In the end, those deals did not proceed and no money was paid.

After hearing about the evidence Maguire gave ICAC, Berejiklian said: “I questioned everything. I can’t express what a shock it was to the system. I thought long and hard about everything … I never suspected him of being corrupt.”

Ultimately, no corruption findings were made against Maguire, although ICAC did recommend that the NSW director of public prosecutions consider charging him with the offence of giving false or misleading evidence to the corruption watchdog on July 13, 2018.

In this inquiry, Operation Keppel, ICAC is investigating the circumstances under which $35.5 million was promised to two projects in Maguire’s electorate at a time when he was in this undisclosed relationship with Berejiklian, who was the treasurer when it started and later the premier. 

Berejiklian failed to make public the relationship, as required by the ministerial code of conduct, saying it was not of “sufficient substance” to require public disclosure. However, ICAC has heard that the two were in love and had talked about having a child, and that he had been given a key to her house.

Several witnesses have given evidence of his vocal support and constant lobbying for these projects for his electorate, which had been viewed in the bureaucracy as being of dubious economic benefit. 

Berejiklian resigned as premier on October 1. She has denied any wrongdoing. She has finished giving evidence and public hearings have now ended.