Former New South Wales premier Gladys Berejiklian has been found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct by the state’s corruption watchdog.
However the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) has not recommended charges be pursued against Berejiklian.
The findings relate to government grants for two organisations in Wagga Wagga in the electorate of Daryl Maguire, with whom Berejiklian was in a relationship and who was also found to have acted corruptly.
Icac found the former premier’s failure to declare a personal conflict of interest in relation to funding for the Australian Clay Target Association (Acta) and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music was a breach of public trust.
Additionally, the Icac found Berejiklian engaged in corrupt conduct by failing to report suspicions that Maguire had engaged in corrupt conduct.
Wagga Wagga projects in the spotlight
The Icac found that Berejiklian “engaged in serious corrupt conduct” in 2016 and 2017 in the exercising of her official functions in relation to “funding promised and/or awarded to” the Acta without disclosing her close personal relationship with Maguire.
The $5.5m grant was not initially supported by the bureaucracy, with Berejiklian found to have communicated a request that the initial benefit–cost ratio be revisited.
(March 3, 2003) Elected MP for Willoughby
(February 20, 2011) Appointed transport minister as the Coalition sweeps to power
(February 20, 2014) Begins secret "close personal relationship" with Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire before becoming treasurer
(January 29, 2017) Becomes NSW premier following the resignation of Mike Baird and reappoints Maguire as a parliamentary secretary
(August 29, 2023) Tells Maguire she hopes he will quit parliament at the 2019 election so their relationship can become public
(September 29, 2017) In an intercepted phone call, she tells Maguire she "didn't need to know about that bit" as he discussed his financial interest in a Western Sydney International Airport land deal that would net him a large financial windfall
(August 29, 2018) Maguire resigns after being exposed in a separate ICAC inquiry, and Berejiklian remains in contact with him
(March 3, 2020) Her approval rating soars and her profile expands to the national stage as the Covid-19 pandemic takes hold
(September 9, 2020) Icac announces it has opened a specific investigation into Maguire. Berejiklian cuts contact
(October 29, 2020) She admits to a "close personal relationship" with Maguire at a public Icac hearing
(October 29, 2021) Resigns as premier as the investigation, dubbed Operation Keppel, turns its focus on her. She denies any wrongdoing
(June 29, 2022) Joins Optus as managing director of enterprise and business
(March 29, 2023) Coalition loses office
(June 29, 2023) Icac finds Berejiklian and Maguire both engaged in "serious corrupt conduct"
The Icac found that Berejiklian “was in a position of a conflict of interest between her public duty and her private interest, which could objectively have the potential to influence the performance of her public duty”.
Icac also found Berejiklian “breached public trust” in relation to a $10m grant for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music (RCM) in 2018 which she knew was being “advanced by Mr Maguire”. It found she was “influenced by the existence of her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire, or by a desire on her part to maintain or advance that relationship, in connection with funding promised and awarded”.
‘Grave misconduct’
Icac also found Berejiklian “substantially breached the ministerial code”, and criticised her for maintaining that she didn’t need to disclose her relationship with Maguire.
“Ms Berejiklian submitted to the Commission that, as premier, the ministerial code did not apply to her. The Commission rejects that submission, and finds that Ms Berejiklian substantially breached the ministerial code by failing in her duty to act honestly and in the public interest in her conduct regarding the RCM proposal,” the Commission found.
“The Commission further rejects Ms Berejiklian’s submission that her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire could not amount to a private interest under the ministerial code,” the Icac found.
Berejiklian’s failure to report suspicions that Maguire engaged in corrupt conduct to the Icac was itself found to be “serious corrupt conduct”.
During hearings at Icac, phone taps were played of conversations between Berejiklian and Maguire. In one conversation where Maguire discussed hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions he stood to gain from brokering a land deal, Berejiklian responded: “I don’t need to know about that bit.”
In its findings released on Thursday, Icac found that “Ms Berejiklian engaged in serious corrupt conduct by refusing to discharge her duty under section 11 of the Icac Act to notify the Commission of her suspicion that Mr Maguire had engaged in activities which concerned, or might have concerned, corrupt conduct”.
Icac noted Berejiklian was premier at the time she failed to report her suspicions, and found doing so to protect herself or Maguire was “grave misconduct”.
“Berejiklian must have known that she was not entitled to refuse to exercise her official functions for her own private benefit, or for the benefit of Mr Maguire. It undermined the high standards of probity that are sought to be achieved by the ministerial code which, as premier, Ms Berejiklian substantially administered,” the Icac found.
The findings were handed down on Thursday morning following repeated delays the Icac blamed on the complexity of the investigation that led the Covid-era premier to resign in late 2021.
Advice to be sought on charges against Maguire
The Commission also found Maguire engaged in serious corrupt conduct, and is seeking the advice of the Director of Public Prosecutions on whether any prosecution should be commenced against him and two others.
He was found to have improperly used his office as an MP to benefit G8wayInternational Pty Ltd, a company of which he was in substance a director, and whose profits he had an arrangement to share with others.
He also was found to have misused his role as an MP to advance his own financial interests in connection with an immigration scheme that he promoted to his constituents and others connected with his electoral district.
‘Formidable’ obstacles to prosecution
Under the laws governing Icac, it is possible for behaviour to be serious enough to warrant a corrupt conduct finding, but not so serious as to constitute the offence of misconduct in public office.
In its report, counsel assisting the commission submitted that as Berejiklian gave her evidence to the Icac under objection, it would not be admissible against her in any criminal proceedings.
They suggested it would be “difficult absent Ms Berejiklian’s evidence for the prosecutor to exclude the hypothesis that Ms Berejiklian would have engaged in the conduct for the purposes of electoral advantage (a purpose that she evidently regarded as legitimate)”, as opposed to advancing her relationship with Maguire.
They would also have to explore Berejiklian’s mental state in supporting the grants, to prove any misconduct by her was “wilful”.
On balance, counsel assisting submitted that the obstacles to a prosecution were “so formidable as to make it reasonably clear that any advice from the DPP with respect to the matter would be to the effect that no prosecution may be commenced”.
Operation Keppel was launched to investigate the conduct of Maguire, then widened to include the then-premier in 2020 after it was revealed the pair had been in a secret “close personal relationship” for several years.
Berejiklian stood down at the height of the state’s pandemic restrictions in 2021 after Icac revealed it was investigating whether she had been involved in “a breach of public trust” by failing to report Maguire’s alleged conduct.
The former premier had repeatedly denied any alleged wrongdoing, including during a grilling at fresh hearings in October 2021.
Commissioner Ruth McColl was expected to hand down findings last year but the commission repeatedly delayed publishing an outcome. Earlier this year the commission blamed “complex matters of law and fact”, as well as the quantity of evidence linked to the case.
