When the New South Wales anti-corruption watchdog began its public hearings into the alleged conduct of a little-known state MP from Wagga Wagga in September last year, it barely made headlines.
Daryl Maguire, a parliamentary secretary, had been forced to quit parliament two years earlier after a separate inquiry exposed his attempts to broker property deals he had hoped to make money off.
Then in September last year, the states Independent Commission Against Corruption (Icac) announced it had been further investigating his conduct as an MP, and began holding public hearings later that month.
The early parts of the hearings contained damning evidence of Maguires conduct as an MP. It heard he had tried to grease the wheels of a land sale involving the racing identity and developer Louise Waterhouse, from which he stood to make $690,000 in commission.
But it was the appearance of the then NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, as a witness in the hearings which elevated them to front-page news. In a morning of stunning evidence on 12 October, Berejiklian revealed she had been in a secret relationship with Maguire since 2015 and had only cut off contact with him a month before she appeared in the stand.
But, most shockingly, Icac had tapped Maguires phone, and recordings played in the hearing revealed he had told the premier he stood to make hundreds of thousands of dollars if land owned by Waterhouse was favourably rezoned.
I dont need to know about that bit, she now infamously said at one point in the recorded phone conversation.
Berejiklian consistently denied any wrongdoing, framing her mistake as a personal one, and insisting I havent done anything wrong. A year later, she appeared to have seen off the scandal, riding high in personal polling thanks in large part to her leadership of NSW during the Covid-19 pandemic.
That ended a fortnight ago, when Icac announced its investigations had widened. The corruption watchdog was now probing whether Berejiklian may have broken the law by failing to report Maguires conduct.
Berejiklian immediately announced her resignation after four years as premier. She again maintained her innocence: I state categorically that I have always acted with the highest level of integrity, she said.
On Monday, Icac will begin more than a weeks worth of hearings.
In the bombshell statement released by the anti-corruption watchdog on 1 October, it said the investigation would focus on a six-year period between 2012 and 2018.
At the heart of the probe is two grants: the $5.5m given to the Australian Clay Target Associations clubhouse and convention centre in 2017, and $30m for the Riverina conservatorium of music in Wagga Wagga in 2018.
Icac said it was investigating whether Berejiklian was involved in what it called a breach of public trust by exercising public functions in circumstances where she was in a position of conflict between her public duties and her private interest as a person because of her relationship with Maguire.
It is also investigating whether Berejiklian breached the independent commission against corruption act by failing to report any matter that she suspected on reasonable grounds concerned or may concern corrupt conduct in relation to the conduct of Maguire.
And, finally, whether her conduct was liable to allow or encourage the occurrence of corrupt conduct by Maguire.
In December, the ABC revealed that Berejiklian had overseen the $5.5m in funding for the Australian Clay Target Associations new clubhouse and convention centre.
The grant had long been championed by Maguire, who announced the fund in a press release in January 2017. Icac subsequently heard that Maguire had sought a small commission from the project.
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The ABC revealed that while the money was awarded through the states regional growth environment and tourism fund, the money was granted through a non-competitive process and had initially come from a different fund which had been overseen by Berejiklian when she was the NSW treasurer.
After the ABCs report, Berejiklian maintained she had been at arms length from the decision, saying: I understand all those arrangements went through the normal processes. I dont intervene in those processes.
But documents released to an upper house inquiry later showed Maguire had written to Berejiklian on behalf of the Clay Target Association in January 2016 seeking funds for the project.
The $30m for the Riverina conservatorium of music in Wagga Wagga in 2018 attracted the attention of the opposition Labor party because it received more funding than all other regional conservatoria combined.
In March she was forced to deny, during a budget estimates hearing, that she signed off on giving extra money to the project despite written confirmation of funding for the project being sent on her own letterhead.
This week, Icac released a list of witnesses for the first week of the hearings.
Among those to be called are Berejiklians predecessor as premier, Mike Baird and the newly sworn-in deputy Liberal leader, Stuart Ayres.
Also on the list are Nigel Blunden, a veteran political strategist who worked for Baird when he was premier; Chris Hanger, a deputy secretary in the Department of Regional NSW; Michael Toohey, a director in the NSW Office of Sport; and Paul Doorn, a former Office of Sport director who now heads up Rugby NSW.
Baird was a member of the governments powerful expenditure review committee when Maguire first made an application for the clay shooting application, while Ayres was then minister of sport.
The documents revealed by the states upper house show that when Maguire wrote to Berejiklian about the clay shooting funding, Berejiklian referred him to Ayres, who initially did not support the project because it fell outside the scope of current sport and recreation funding programs.
It has remained unclear what happened after.
Link:
Why is Icac examining the public and private lives of Gladys Berejiklian? - The Guardian Australia
