The New South Wales corruption watchdog will finally hand down the findings of an inquiry that claimed the political career of Gladys Berejiklian on Thursday, almost two years after her resignation.
Key Liberal figures have this week come out in support of the Covid-era premier and criticised the way the Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) operation into Berejiklian and the former Wagga Wagga MP Daryl Maguire was handled.
The report comes as the Minns government on Wednesday backed a parliamentary committee’s call for Icac to develop its own time standards and measure its performance against them.
“[The changes] will increase transparency and public accountability of the Icac’s reporting functions without imposing inflexible restrictions on the Icac,” the government said.
The shadow attorney general, Alister Henskens, said a six-month gap between the last hearing and a report would be “the absolute end of the scale of reasonableness”.
The inquiry initially looked into whether Maguire engaged in conduct that involved a breach of public trust, before it widened to include Berejiklian when it was revealed the pair had been in a secret “close personal relationship” for several years.
Berejiklian has repeatedly denied any wrongdoing, including when she resigned in response to Icac announcing she was being investigated at the height of the state’s pandemic restrictions in 2021.
Liberal party faithful remain hopeful Berejiklian could be largely cleared of wrongdoing, opening the possibility for her to run for a federal seat such as North Sydney at the next election.
A steadfast Berejiklian supporter and former environment minister, James Griffin, said the former premier’s legacy was stronger than anything the commission could find.
“No matter what the Icac choose to say after all this time, they can’t take away the fact that Gladys Berejiklian led us through the most challenging of times and she remains an inspiration to so many people across this state,” he said.
The commission will hand its findings to the parliament’s presiding officers on Thursday morning. It is expected to make the report public later in the day.
The corruption watchdog will make findings about Maguire, Berejiklian and others. Depending on the findings, it could make suggestions for charges to the state’s public prosecutor.
During the course of the investigation in 2020, it was revealed that Maguire and Berejiklian had been in a secret relationship for several years – a revelation that led to the premier being pulled into the inquiry to examine if she had breached the public trust.
Icac has also examined whether there was any conflict of interest between Berejiklian’s public duties and private interests while she was in a relationship with Maguire.
The length and public nature of the investigation has been the source of concern for many across the political spectrum.
It has been 605 days since the last public hearing, prompting opposition figures to demand that Icac should be given stricter deadlines to report its findings.
“The unacceptable, unexplained and repeated delays delivering this report may have been forgiven if they didn’t come after a public political lynching that effectively ended Ms Berejiklian’s premiership,” former treasurer Matt Kean told the Guardian earlier this week.
“If Icac can’t manage an effective process, reform is needed to limit the integrity body to making only final findings public.”
The commissioner, Ruth McColl, has blamed delays on the complexity of the law and the quantity of evidence pulled as part of the investigation.
with Australian Associated Press
