Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian is trying to overturn findings that she engaged in while serving as premier and treasurer.
In 2023, after a lengthy inquiry, the state’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) ruled that her had influenced her actions.
Now, a two-day hearing has started in the NSW Court of Appeals to challenge the findings.
Here’s how we got to this point.
What happened between Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire?
Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire started what Berejiklian later described as a “close personal relationship” while both working in NSW politics.
ICAC later found the relationship spanned as far back as 2014.
Berejiklian disclosed the relationship in late 2020 when she appeared at an inquiry into Maguire’s business interests.
Maguire was accused of abusing his public office while serving between 2012 and 2018 as a state MP.
Berejiklian said she had kept the relationship private because she is “a very private person” and didn’t feel the relationship was sufficient to be made public.
She denied had any bearing on her decisions.
Why did ICAC investigate Gladys Berejiklian?
Following the Maguire inquiry, the ICAC announced in October 2021 that it was investigating whether Berejiklian “exercised public functions” in a position of conflict between her public duties and private relationship with Maguire.
Between 2016 and 2018, as treasurer and then premier, allocations of $5.5 million for the Wagga Wagga-based Australian Clay Target Association and $10 million for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music.
Maguire was the member for Wagga Wagga in the NSW Legislative Assembly from 1999 until his resignation in 2018.
ICAC’s inquiry into Berejiklian also investigated whether she should have “suspected on reasonable grounds” that Maguire may have engaged in corrupt conduct.
Berejiklian shortly after ICAC announced its investigation.
Was Gladys Berejiklian guilty of corruption?
The ICAC handed down its findings on Berejiklian in June 2023. The report ruled Berejiklian engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” during the relationship and had breached public trust.
That included failing to disclose her suspicion that Maguire was “engaged in activities which concerned, or might have concerned, corrupt conduct”, the ICAC found.
It did not call for criminal prosecution of the former premier.
The anti-corruption watchdog found Gladys Berejiklian was influenced by her secret relationship with Daryl Maguire. Source: AAP
What is Gladys Berejiklian appealing?
Berejiklian has long denied the relationship had any bearing on her decisions.
“Serving the people of NSW was an honour and a privilege. At all times I’ve worked my hardest in the public interest,” she said after the ICAC report was released.
“Nothing in this report demonstrates otherwise. Thank you to members of the public for their incredible support, this will sustain me always.”
In her court summons, Berejiklian argued the corruption findings were “illogical or irrational” because the watchdog said there was insufficient evidence to prove the accusations to the criminal standard.
She also claimed former judge Ruth McColl, who was appointed assistant commissioner to help with the inquiry, did not have the authority to prepare the ICAC report.
Other grounds of the appeal include attacks on findings concerning Berejiklian’s responsibility to act in the public interest and the merits of Maguire’s pet projects.
Source Agencies
