(Image: Zennie/Private Media)
(Image: Zennie/Private Media)

There was something eerily familiar about the front page of The Sydney Morning Herald today:

Above the headline recounting the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC)’s finding that she was a “corrupt liar”, the former NSW premier sits on a Parliament bench in a white suit, clearly taken from the same photoshoot which gave us the cover of The Australian Financial Review magazine for May 2021, which described Berejiklian as “The Woman Who Saved Australia”:

This contrast points to the, shall we say, vibe of some of the media Gladys Berejiklian enjoyed, even after her secret relationship with congenital shonk Daryl Maguire was revealed.

Initial PR tour

A mere week after telling ICAC that the Maguire relationship had “insufficient status” to tell anyone about, Berejiklian went to The Daily Telegraph, telling gossip columnist Annette Sharp that Daryl was the man she had planned to marry. Sharp wrote that the “romantically inexperienced politician” is “shattered”, “shedding bitter tears in private” and “paying a painful price” for no greater crime than “ loving and trusting” the wrong man.

“I’ve given up on love,” she declared. “I loved him, but I’ll never speak to him again.”

Helpfully, the paper ran the results of a poll alongside this lament — finding that most women, the obvious target for this particular rehab angle, felt she had done nothing wrong.

The media blitz continued over the next few days — she spoke to 2GB’s Ben Fordham, largely sticking to the script except to briefly return to the pre-“I’ll never love again” line that Maguire was never actually her boyfriend.

Then the famously private premier made the truly baffling decision to talk to Kyle Sandilands (also, it was on his radio show). She was subjected to questions about whether she’d ever “dabbled” in same-sex relationships, and got to hear Sandilands brag about getting it on with several co-workers during a stint in Perth.

Round two: the investigation

The AFR had an unfortunate talent for Berejiklian coverage that aged like fine milk. It was entirely understandable to centre state premiers in its 2021 power list. As it turned out, though, it could have been timed better. The Fin took the innovative step of making the cover a giant QR code so readers in different states could see the cover emblazoned with their state premier. And so NSW readers were greeted with Berejiklian’s stoic portrait, with the word “power” hovering beneath, on the very same day it was announced she was being investigated by ICAC and she stood down.

As Janine Perrett noted, News Corp had “traditionally been unsympathetic to Berejiklian as a woman, a moderate and a mate of Malcolm Turnbull”. So it was interesting to see their commentariat leap so unequivocally to her defence.

“‘Lynch mob’ takes down yet another political career”, declared Sharri Markson in The Australian. Peta Credlin wrote that Berejiklian was “Australia’s best premier during the pandemic” in a Tele column that manages a hat-trick of ongoing New Corp concerns — defence of beleaguered Liberals, hatred of ICAC and a total uncomprehending fixation on the fact that Victorian Premier Dan Andrews had stayed in office through his troubles in the same period:

Honestly it stinks. A fine premier and a decent person is lost to her state over perceptions of improper influence regarding a couple of small grants to community organisations and because she got too close to someone who was unworthy of her.

I am not excusing illegal behaviour and more might come out — who knows? — but such is ICAC’s ability to drag your name through the mud without any finding of guilt, Berejiklian is now the third NSW Liberal premier it’s brought undone.

Yet across the Murray, another premier faces no sanction despite politicising the police and the public service, using millions of taxpayer dollars for blatantly political purposes, and an ongoing litany of COVID failures. Yes, life is often unfair and politics often rewards the least deserving candidates. In this case the unfairness has removed a good leader in NSW and seemingly entrenched a really poor one in Victoria.

Today’s Oz front page reacting to the report emphasised that there was no criminality found in Berejiklian’s case, alongside an opinion piece headed “Seriously? ICAC has gone too far”. This is countered by Stephen Rice’s contention that Berejiklian took a “grateful state for mugs”, and Troy Bramston’s column saying the ruin of her career is a “fitting punishment”.