Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has lost her appeal to overturn ICAC’s findings that she engaged in “serious corrupt conduct”.
In a split 2-1 decision, the NSW Court of Appeal on Friday (26/7/45) morning dismissed her bid to quash ICAC’s findings relating to the approval of two multimillion dollar grants in her then boyfriend Daryl Maguire’s former electorate of Wagga Wagga and her failure to disclose they were in a relationship.
The funding decisions were made during a period between 2016 and 2018 when she was treasurer and later premier.
The former premier challenged the validity of the report on grounds that ICAC was acting beyond its authority under the ICAC Act.
Justice Julie Ward dissented saying she would have upheld the appeal.
Berejiklian resigned in October 2021 amid the ICAC investigation.
Andrew L. Urban is the author of GLADYS (Wilkinson Publishing)
During the ICAC hearings, several intercepted calls between Mr Maguire and Ms Berejiklian were played and in one 2017 call he alluded to a potential windfall he stood to make over a property deal.
Ms Berejiklian responded, “I don’t need to know about that bit.”
[ https://www.abc.net.au/news/2023-06-29/icac-findings-into-former-premier-gladys-berejiklian/102539148 ]
Andrew Andrew – A new genuinely disturbing reminder today of police bastardary ! An “old” but still troubling pattern of distortions and lies- have spent some retired time rereading on the Sue Neill-Fraser debacle- listened to the complete Pat Brown talk on why Sue is guilty . Pat Brown would make a very successful Australian dpp/judge. Some straight out lies – but worse, smart alec clever manipulation of events and pretended ignorance of the innocent persons reaction to police interrogations . Some persons may not be aware that many even “normal”or high IQ individuals hardly know what day it is – let alone the times they went shopping and on which day ! Myself- I live in my own little dream world of 20th century military weapons history – (and much other stuff) . My better half thinks i should have been a statistician- just dont ask me how long i was in Bunnings 2 days ago ..Read a law lecture as to why an innocent victim should never speak about events to police . Has been easily shown how victims can easily be manipulated into contradictions and GOTCHA ! They are not yout friend – “the necessary evil “.
Berejiklian was corrupt in that the electorate at large were not aware of her lover fellow politician gaining funds for his electorate due to her position and influence. His gain being re-elected and seen as a good chap in his electorate. Possibly other more personal gains. Glady’s gain a most intimate one desired by the majority of us all a partner and intimate companion albeit against many moral codes and what was at best in the public eye a clandestine arrangement. Then there is corruption by negligence let’s not go down that path least there be insufficient space to nominate Glady’s
contributions to same.
Dear Santa -My (prima/ery) interest and fascination (almost). Would a Criminal Case Review Commission CCRC go down a similar path to ICAC ? Hopefully not !
Gladys Berejiklian didn’t give or offer
any money to her partner – so why do you say that – political mischief ? Grants – in this case come from the State Government treasury after cabinet committee’s approval and thru the long established system . Federal Government Grants to states also result – from representations – lobbyists etc. My endeavours have resulted in my dream projects being rejected as quite stupid- A first class highway completely across Central Australia – East West- A pipe line sea water siphoning system – fill Lake Eyre with sea water permanently ! Evaporation rains resulting across the red centre ! Floods destroying my new highway ? Emulate the Norwegian justice and prison system – Not the USA disaster. Remove judges from the Appeals System – another -many times proven disaster .
Crikey – Failure to disclose that they were in a relationship ? Was that the actual primery naughtiness ? Actually, it wasn’t all that secret ! Were there not multi-million grants made to other electorates for useful and meritorious works ? These particular grants were not a secret from the normal treasury accounting practices – recorded for all to see – quite usual and proper ? Was there a genuine need in Wagga Community for these good and beneficial works to be carried out ? These funding decisions were made by a cabinet committee – the appeal outcome is an insult to the members of that ccommittee ! That the members didn’t make a fit and proper allocation of grant monies ? Personally, I think they did- and Gladys Berejiklian wasn’t really given a fair go !
As you say, the ICAC confused political machinations that are commonplace with corruption. Berejiklian should have disclosed her relationship to a couple of key people, but that was a matter of ministerial conduct, not corruption. The ICAC is too big for its boots, as seen before … Corruption results in personal gain, which did not occur.
She was caught on a tapped phone call saying she will give her partner LOTS of money.
“She was caught on a tapped phone call saying (that) she was caught on a tapped phone call saying she will give her partner LOTS of money”.
Justice Ward did, amongst other issues, suggest that the former Premier did not “give her partner LOTS of money.”