Maguire-Berejiklian phone call of 15 Nov 2017 is important for the information it contains about Gladys Berejiklian's reaction to having her email address provided a property developer seeking her intervention
She knew Maguire took property developer Louise Waterhouse to Berejiklian’s office and arranged a meeting with Jock Sowter from the Roads Minister’s office. She denied knowing about it, until ICAC played a recorded phone call in which he told her. #nswpol
A phone call between the Premier and Mr Maguire on November 15, 2017, which was aired during her questioning, the former Wagga Wagga MP asked Ms Berejiklian whether she had received the email (from property developer Louise Waterhouse).
After she answered “no”, Mr Maguire said: “You will. She’ll send you an email. She’s really pissed off now so um, about the you know, the, the airport.””
What ought to be of interest to any investigator is the fact that Premier Gladys Berejiklian did not seem to react in any way when told that a property developer had sent an email to her personal email address.
That silence is maintained even when she is told that the email concerns a matter over which the developer is " really pissed off".
The transcript of the proceedings during which the above was stated is reported in context by The Guardian (see below. It is not hard to see that ICAC did not concern itself with the issue of why Berejiklian was not angered or concerned that her boyfriend had facilitated, by providing a private email address, a property developer access to her.
Most adults will understand that what matters to a commission agent, broker or facilitator is to be seen and to prove that he or she has access to the people who matter, in this case the Premier of NSW Gladys Berejiklian. As the adult Premier Of NSW , and as a former banker, Berejiklian would have understood all that, even if it escapes ICAC.
Berejiklian is being asked what she did with emails from property developer and racing heiress Louise Waterhouse, requesting help from the government on her land near the western Sydney airport. Maguire was being paid to help Waterhouse.
Berejiklian said she has had her office look for those emails and said no action was taken in relation to them.
My office advised me that they could not find any record that I had forwarded any of these emails on or that my office had in any way responded.
Maguire told Berejiklian of 'big problem' of developer Louise Waterhouse
Berejiklian is being asked about her process for meeting with people.
I would never conduct a meeting without the presence of my staff and without a formal schedule. However, I did allow pop-ins. Members wanted to introduce me to things or things came up urgently.
Was she aware of attempts by Maguire to have her intervene and help Waterhouse with her land sale?
Not apart from what you’ve already put to me in the private meeting.
A telephone intercept was played between Maguire and Berejiklian.
Maguire tells her that he “had coffee with Louise Waterhouse”.
Berejiklian:
Oh yeah, how she’s going?
Maguire tells her that Waterhouse has a “big problem” with the sale of her land. She wanted road access to her block of land.
Maguire says he involved NSW public servants and staff from Berejiklian’s office in a meeting to help Waterhouse.
Maguire:
They just wont do anything. So I got Roads, I got Jock to come down, and I got one bloke from your place there. And I got them to put their heads together and said, ‘look why can’t you fix this?’ ... Honestly, no one wants to do anything.
Maguire also indicated to Berejiklian that an email would be coming to her office from Waterhouse.
Berejiklian said she had assumed that Maguire was making full and proper disclosures of his interests and financial dealings, as required.
My assumption was that he was doing everything properly.
Berejiklian said she “would not have hesitated” to report his actions if she had any inkling that Maguire was engaged in wrongdoing.
I had no reason to believe I had to take an interest in what was his interest, his matter, and I also would have assumed that he would have made the proper disclosures.
She is reminded that Maguire told her he was about to make a lot of money out of a deal out of Badgerys Creek (the site of the western Sydney airport), a project that was of high importance to the NSW government.
The Icac commissioner Ruth McColl is grilling the premier about her position. She reminds the premier that she had “a number of conversations with Mr Maguire in which he explained to you that someone called William was doing a deal at Badgerys Creek, if that deal was affected, he wouldn’t have to worry about his financial position, you know that his financial position was that he was in debt to the tune of about $1.5m”.
Berejiklian then learned Maguire was about to make a vast sum of money at Badgerys Creek, which would help him with his debts.
McColl asks:
Were you by this stage starting to be concerned that Mr Maguire was talking to you about a deal in which he would make a profit as a member of parliament out of a large-scale investment with which the NSW government was concerned?
Berejiklian says Maguire was “always talking big” about deals. She says a lot of what he said was “fanciful”.
I wouldn’t have registered a concern at that stage, because he was always talking big about deals and they always seemed to fall through.
'You don't need to know about that bit': Maguire to Berejiklian
Icac has heard that Maguire told Berejiklian if the “Badgerys Creek stuff” was done, he’d have enough money to pay off his debts. Badgerys Creek is the location of the western Sydney airport.
Maguire also intimated that his financial position would be a factor in his decision to resign.
We’ve just heard a phone tap between Berejiklian and Maguire.
Maguire tells Berejiklian:
William tells me we’ve done our deal, so hopefully that’s about half of all that gone.
Berejiklian says:
I don’t need to know about that bit.
Maguire says:
No you don’t. You do not. Anyway so it’s all good news, we’re moving ahead.
Berejiklian is asked by Icac counsel assisting, Scott Robertson, why she had said that she didn’t “need to know about that bit”.
She is asked whether she was trying to limit her exposure to details of his dealings. Berejiklian said if she had felt there was “wrongdoing on the part of Mr Maguire” she would have reported it.
If I did regard anything as a concern, I would have reported it or dealt with, and I want to make that very clear.
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