The NSW ICAC has made findings of serious corrupt conduct against former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and former Wagga Wagga Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.
The report from the ICAC was delivered to the NSW parliament just after 9am on Thursday morning, almost two years after Berejiklian resigned as premier of the state.
Berejiklian resigned as NSW premier in October 2021 after the ICAC confirmed it was investigating if she had engaged in conduct that breached public trust during her secret, personal relationship with Maguire.
The report states that Berejiklian breached public trust in 2016 and 2017 in relation to grants to the Australian Clay Target Association in Maguire’s Wagga Wagga electorate, without disclosing the relationship she had with Maguire. It noted she 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 Berejikiian “partially exercised” her official functions in connection with funding promised to the Australian Clay Target Association and this was influenced by her relationship with Maguire.
It also found she “partially exercised” her official functions in 2018 in connection with funding awarded to a proposal to build a recital hall for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music. Berejiklian breached public trust in making decisions about the conservatorium, which she knew had been advanced or supported by Maguire.
The report has said Berejiklian engaged in serious corrupt conduct by failing to notify ICAC of her suspicion that Maguire had engaged in activities which concerned, or might have concerned, corrupt conduct.
“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 report said.
In relation to Maguire, the ICAC said he improperly used his office, and the resources to which he had access to as a member of parliament, between 2012 and August 2018.
The ICAC said it was not of the opinion that advice should be obtained from the Director of Public Prosecution in relation to Berejiklian for any offence. However, it said consideration should be given to obtaining the advice of the DPP about the prosecution of Maguire and two of his associates.