Former NSW premier Mike Baird was “incredulous” when he found out Gladys Berejiklian and former Wagga MP Daryl Maguire had been in a “close personal relationship” for several years.
Baird, who handed over the premiership to Berejiklian in 2017, told the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) hearing yesterday afternoon that the relationship should have been disclosed publicly as it represented a potential conflict of interest.
Had it been known it would have affected “what I did as premier”, he said.
He added that Berejiklian, then treasurer, should not have participated in any decisions regarding Maguire’s electorate and absented herself from all relevant meetings.
Baird’s feelings towards Maguire are not hard to guess. He says Maguire had been “aggressive” in his approach to requests for funding, and “abusive in his conduct towards members of staff [and] public servants”.
“This was not conduct which I supported.”
Asked if Maguire had been treated with respect in the party room, he said there had been “concerns” about him.
ICAC is investigating the circumstances in which a $5.5 million was granted to a gun club and $30 million was granted to the Riverina Conservatorium of Music, both in Maguire’s electorate, between 2016 and 2018.
Berejiklian, who abruptly resigned from NSW Parliament two weeks ago, has denied all wrongdoing and will give evidence next week. She told ICAC late last year that she had been in a relationship with Maguire, who left the NSW Parliament following a separate ICAC inquiry.
The questioning of witnesses by Berejiklian’s counsel Sophie Callan SC has given an indication of the former premier’s possible defence. Callan has been asking about the Coalition’s loss of the seat of Orange in a byelection and the party’s concerns about retaining the rural and regional electorates.
It seems that faced with a choice of pleading that Berejiklian’s actions were simply “pork-barrelling” or “shoring up the electoral prospects of [her] boyfriend”, the legal team is focusing on the former.
Raining dollar bills on marginal electorates is not against the law, as Berejiklian has already noted. Late last year, in response to a query about $140 million in grants approved close to the state election, she conceded that it was pork barrelling, but said there was nothing illegal about it.
It’s not unique to our government,” she said.
The WTF moment
“Sometimes you gotta say WTF.”
This was the reaction of former Baird adviser Nigel Blunden to the request for $5.5 million for the Australian Clay Target Association. Blunden was in the witness box this morning, trying hard to avoid revealing his disquiet over this questionable use of public money. He was quoting Joel Goodson (Tom Cruise’s character in the 1983 film Risky Business).
“What’s it going to be called, the Maguire International Shooting Centre of Excellence?” he asked facetiously, referring to the fact the proposal was being pushed by Maguire.
Asked this morning by counsel assisting, Scott Robertson, if the proposal “went against all the principles of sound economic management”, Blunden agreed emphatically.
ICAC has heard the business case was not subject to independent review and no feasibility study was undertaken.
Blunden’s memo was written two days before the state government’s expenditure review committee (ERC) considered the proposal on December 14, 2016, and ultimately gave the association $5.5 million.
“Gladys wants it,” he wrote in an email to colleagues. His notes also said: “No doubt [they’ve] done a sweetheart deal with Daryl,” but “this goes against all the principles of sound economic management”.
“I can’t recall exactly why I used that phrase,” Blunden told ICAC, adding that he was not suggesting anything improper.
Yesterday afternoon ICAC released transcripts of private hearings which indicated that Baird was circumspect about the gun club proposal.
Zach Bentley was interviewed in a private hearing at ICAC in April. The former adviser to Berejiklian who had also interned in Maguire’s office while at university is not accused of any wrongdoing. He told ICAC he believed Blunden “queried why we were giving funding to a clay target association in … a relatively safe seat”.
“Daryl [Maguire] would be quite, at times, abrupt and call you to, you know, to the effect of ‘Mate, Stuart’s office is holding up whatever particular proposal. Get the effing thing sorted. You know, I really need this for my electorate.’”
Bentley said: “I do recall [he and Maguire] had conversations about him thinking that was a necessity for his electorate.”
“Do you happen to know what view Ms Berejiklian, as treasurer, had in relation to the … Australian Clay Target Association proposal, that Mr Maguire was seeking to lobby for, including through you?” Robertson asked.
“I believe the treasurer was amenable to it,” Bentley said.
Asked when he first became aware of the relationship between Berejiklian and Maguire, Bentley said: “When I received a text message during the course of Ms Berejiklian’s evidence [at the ICAC in October last year], to which I spat my water out.”
“Literally spat your water out?” Robertson asked.
“Literally spat my water out. These are two people I’ve known quite well and the fact that I had no knowledge of it … it was quite shocking.”
The hearing continues.
The former NSW Premier also faced earlier protests against her insistence that the final section of the heavy railway line from Sydney to the heart of Newcastle be ripped out, so the rail strip could be sold to developers. The Hunter River views was allegedly a selling point; the apartment blocks now there are an eyesore. But the final, unobtrusive station had provided every passenger with a short walk to the oldest centre of Newcastle – the art gallery, town hall, parks and restaurants down the main old heart. Light rail was a substitute mess that put locals under great stress. This was the development mindset, the determination to do so against Newcastle residents wishes at whatever cost. I am not saying her project was tainted in any way, although it was philistine as we in NSW have endured for years. We have governments run for business, by business, agribusiness and banks, just as the Rum Corps. It’s quite extraordinary that Crikey has spent so long praising the LNP in NSW; being from Melbourne, you haven’t bothered to look at, or read the very contrary evidence.
My impressions is that at least Bernard Keane was quite fond of Gladys if she came up in his articles.
My understanding is that Gladys/Mike promised that the rail corridor would never be sold or developed but would be used to open up the city to the waterfront!
So again, if you think pork barreling is all right, because everybody’s doing – what does that say of your judgement when it comes to an avowal of “I’ve always acted with the highest level of integrity”?…. As judged against what standards?
….Funny how fate can so often turn around and bite you on on the fundaments when you play favourites – especially when you’re a journo?
It would be ironic if Ms Berejiklian gets done for this grant on the technicality of a conflict of interest while nothing happens about the far larger grants to regional governments which she brushed off as normal pork barrelling.
Same as Bridget McKenzie was briefly sent to the sin bin for a conflict of interest on a small grant while everyone escaped consequences for the much larger improprieties of the sports rort affair.
The N.S.W. liberal gold standard government heavily influenced by No Show Morrison is rotten “at the core” .Lies, conflict of interest, vaccine theft, gold standard pork-barreling, spreading COVID interstate and to NZ by failing to lock down promptly to mention a few crimes. Lack of integrity should not be a euphemism for misuse of public money. Theft is theft, property developers should not be given public land as payment for services rendered past or future..
in a place as incestuous as the NSW Parliament, none of the evidence of who new about the rooting of Gladys is believable.
Mcguire spent half his time squiring Chinamen through Berejiklian’s office and no one noticed or wondered..for 5 years.. please..