Berejiklian inquiry day ten as it happened: Tapped phone call reveals Daryl Maguire told former NSW premier about ICAC summons

Good afternoon and thank you for reading our live coverage of day 10 of the ICAC’s public inquiry into former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian and former state Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

The ICAC is examining the circumstances in which the state government granted or promised millions of dollars to two organisations in Mr Maguire’s electorate while he was in a secret relationship with Ms Berejiklian, which started in 2015 when she was NSW treasurer and continued when she became premier in January 2017.

The corruption watchdog is also considering whether she failed to report suspected corruption involving Mr Maguire, or failed to disclose a potential conflict of interest arising from that relationship.

The inquiry has heard the Berejiklian-Maguire relationship continued even after she asked Mr Maguire to quit politics in July 2018 following his evidence at an earlier corruption inquiry into the former Canterbury Council.

In the same 2018 call, which was indeed tapped by the ICAC as then NSW Liberal MP Daryl Maguire suggested, Mr Maguire said the corruption watchdog was staffed with “surprise artists”.

“If people had told me the bloke was suss, I wouldn’t have dealt with him,” Mr Maguire told then premier Gladys Berejiklian of a councillor at the former Canterbury Council.

He had just received a summons to give evidence at the ICAC in relation to that council.

These people are surprise artists. You don’t know what they’re gonna come up with next, you’ve got no idea. You know this is all about, you know, setting you up and then stinging you with the tail.” Mr Maguire said.

In the same July 2018 phone call, the then NSW Liberal MP for Wagga Wagga, Daryl Maguire, told then premier Gladys Berejiklian that he was unaware of any “shenanigans” at the former Canterbury Council and it had “nothing to do with me”.

As noted in previous posts, Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian he had introduced an “idiot” former councillor to a Chinese property development company, Country Garden, and he had now been summonsed to appear at an ICAC inquiry.

Phone taps subsequently played at the 2018 Operation Dasha inquiry, which pre-dated this investigation, featured Mr Maguire speaking about potential commissions that he could earn from property deals with Country Garden. Ultimately, he did not receive any money.

Mr Maguire told Ms Berejiklian the ICAC inquiry was bad luck and he “must have killed a few black cats and walked under a few ladders”.

In a tapped phone call in July 2018, the then NSW Liberal MP for Wagga Wagga, Daryl Maguire, tells then premier Gladys Berejiklian that he has been summonsed to give evidence at an earlier corruption inquiry.

The inquiry, Operation Dasha, examined dealings at the former Canterbury Council.

Mr Maguire said he had been “subpoenaed to go to ICAC, so that’s exciting”.

He said he introduced an “idiot” former councillor to a Chinese property development company, Country Garden.