ICAC Has Exposed Gladys And Daryl’s Texts And Phone Calls In Excruciating Detail

Painfully intimate phone conversations between former New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian and her then-boyfriend Daryl Maguire have been made public as part of her ICAC inquiry and hoo boy, this is a lot.

Berejiklian is currently being investigated by the Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) over millions of dollars worth of grants given to her former boyfriend’s electorate of Wagga Wagga. Specifically, ICAC is examining whether she turned a blind eye to corruption as a result of her relationship with Maguire — which was never disclosed publicly.

It is worth noting that Berejiklian has continually denied any wrongdoing and there is no assertion that she is guilty of corruption. She did, however, resign as a result of the investigation.

In her hearing today, Berejiklian maintained that she would still stand by her decision not to disclose the relationship. “I didn’t feel it was of sufficient standard or sufficient significance to do that,” she said.

As part of the hearing on Thursday, Maguire gave evidence to ICAC and admitted he had previously misused his parliamentary position — a position he no longer holds. Evidence presented on Thursday included several phone calls between Maguire and Berejiklian, which were secretly recorded by investigators throughout the pair’s five year relationship.

During one specific call from July 30, 2018, both parties can be heard talking about “throwing money” at Wagga Wagga after Berejiklian asserted Maguire was stressing her out. “I don’t want to argue with you, I just need to go and chill because you’ve stressed me out,” Berejiklian says on the tape.

“Alright, I’ll go and chill, you just throw money at Wagga,” Maguire replies.

“I’ll throw money at Wagga, lots of it don’t you worry about that … you just have to do what’s right on your end, otherwise you’ll kill me,” Berejiklian says.

Maguire ultimately resigned from his position as Member for Wagga Wagga less than a week after this call.

Things have ramped up even further on Friday morning with the former premier admitting that Maguire was part of her “love circle” (a term that quickly became meme fodder), but not on the same level as her family. The comment came after she was quizzed on her decision to disclose that two of her cousins are public servants — as she did not want this to be a conflict of interest — but remain tight lipped about Maguire.

“I would have been concerned that that may be treated in a particular way, or it might be assumed that they’re getting favour because they’re related to me,” she replied.  “We didn’t share finances, we didn’t live together, I was not confident in his level of commitment, I did not regard him as a member of my family”.

“I was very uncertain as to the status of that relationship. I didn’t know where it was going.”

However, she was quickly shown a text message from 2018 in which she told Maguire “you are my family.”

In a separate phone call revealed on Friday, Berejiklian can be heard saying “I just got you $170 million in five minutes” to Maguire in May 2018 — regarding the hospital funding he requested.

More evidence is expected to be revealed throughout the day, with Berejiklian already butting heads with counsel assisting ICAC Scott Robertson during today’s inquiry.