Gladys Berejiklian loses ICAC appeal – MASHAHER

Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has defended her conduct as leader after she lost her court bid to overturn damning findings made against her by the state’s corruption watchdog.

In a decision on Friday, a 2-1 majority of the NSW Court of Appeal dismissed her application for judicial review of the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s findings.

Berejiklian resigned as premier in October 2021 amid an ICAC probe into funding decisions she made while in a secret relationship with a government MP. She sought an order quashing the ICAC’s findings, released in June last year, or a declaration that they were a nullity.

In a statement released on Friday, the former premier thanked the court for considering the appeal and noted the “limited nature of a challenge that can be made to ICAC findings by any citizen”.

“The decision of the NSW Court of Appeal was split 2-1,” she said. “The dissenting judgment of the President of the Court of Appeal held that the report was beyond power and that the findings of ICAC should be quashed.

“Serving the people of NSW was an honour and privilege which I never took for granted. I always worked my hardest to look after the welfare and interests of the people of NSW.”

The ICAC found that Berejiklian engaged in serious corrupt conduct between 2016 and 2018 by participating in decisions to make multimillion-dollar government grants to two projects in the then-Wagga Wagga Liberal MP Daryl Maguire’s electorate, without disclosing the pair were in a close personal relationship.

At the time, Berejiklian was treasurer and later premier. The ICAC found the relationship between the pair continued until September 2020.

Bret Walker, SC, acting for Berejiklian, told the NSW Court of Appeal in February that the assistant commissioner who presided over the inquiry, former Court of Appeal judge Ruth McColl, acted beyond her authority in preparing the report because her term of office expired on October 31, 2022.