NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian has today revealed that she was in a “close personal relationship” with disgraced former Member for Wagga Wagga Daryl Maguire as part of a corruption inquiry.
Berejiklian gave evidence on Monday morning at an Independent Commission Against Corruption, that is investigating whether Maguire used his position in government for personal gain.
As part of the inquiry, Berejiklian revealed that she was in a “close personal relationship” with Maguire from 2015 (around the time of the state election) up until a few months ago, which means it was likely pretty serious, the ABC reports.
However, she also explained that she cut all contact when she was asked to be apart of the inquiry.
“When I was asked to support this inquiry it became apparent to me that I should have absolutely no contact anymore and I ceased all contact,” Berejiklian said.
Throughout Monday’s hearing, Berejiklian revealed that the relationship was largely private, and wasn’t common knowledge among Members of Parliament.
She asserted that this was, in part, to avoid potentially awkward situations for both her and Maguire, claiming that she’d consider making the relationship public if he resigned from Parliament. However, she also just put it down to her own privacy.
“More substantially, I’m a very private person and I didn’t feel the relationship had sufficient substance for it to be made public,” she said.
In regards to his business interests – aka the reason he’s under investigation – Berejiklian asserted that she was aware they existed, but assumed he was doing the right thing and disclosing this information as required.
Berejiklian told the court that the relationship was “never, ever” a conflict of interest for her or her role as NSW Premier, and that she simply “did not care” about his finances.
“If you’re suggesting that I cared about his financial position, I reject that completely. I did not care. That was his business, it had nothing to with me,’’ she said.
“I’ve never relied on anybody else in my life. And I wouldn’t start then.”
She even added that she isn’t entirely sure he was even truthful about his financial position during their relationship, claiming “he was obsessed with it.”
“Looking back, I’m not sure whether he was truthful about that, if I can be frank. I don’t know if anything that.. said to me was truthful,’’ she said.
“He raised it with me… I can’t confirm that what he told me was truthful. But I did not care about his financial position. That was his business.”
To put it simply, Berejiklian asserted that, regardless of her personal relationships, she would never turn a blind eye or conceal any wrongdoing she saw.
“Can I say, I would never, ever, never, ever turned a blind eye from any responsibility I had to disclose any wrongdoing that I saw, or any activity that I thought was not in keeping with what a member of Parliament should be doing and I want to make that very clear,” she clarified.
The news comes after the ICAC heard evidence that Maguire gave Berejiklian’s email to a contact in an attempt to provide “a tickle from the top” in regards to rezoning changes for a landowner lobby.
More to come.
