by Ganesh Sahathevan
The AFR reported:
(Former NSW Premier Gladys) Berejiklian takes up the new role (as managing director enterprise, business and institutional) with the main aim of snatching lucrative government telecoms contracts from bitter rival Telstra.
Readers are reminded that Berejiklian resigned after the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption commenced an investigation into her actions while premier, which involved favouring her ex-boyfriend's electorate with government grants.
TO BE READ WITH
Saturday, March 12, 2022
Gladys Berejiklian's document shredding caused a former NSW Auditor-General to call for her resignation but Singtel Optus sees it as her strength in being able to build and foster "loyal and dedicated teams who really go above and beyond for her”?
by Ganesh Sahathevan
In appointing Gladys Berejiklian as a managing director Singtel Optus CEO Kelly Bayer Rosmarin commented that Berejiklian is able to build and foster "loyal and dedicated teams who really go above and beyond for her.”
That comment is interesting given that Berejiklian's team were recently in the news for shredding documents "related to $250 million in council grants (that are) likely to be unlawful". The incident caused a former NSW Auditor General to call for her resignation.
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Former NSW auditor-general says Berejiklian should resign
By Alexandra Smith
October 27, 2020 — 6.57pm
A former NSW auditor-general has warned that the shredding of documents related to $250 million in council grants was likely to be unlawful and should end Gladys Berejiklian's leadership.
Tony Harris, who has also served as a senior Commonwealth public servant, said he was confident the Premier's office breached the State Records Act when it destroyed paper and digital records.
NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian is loved by voters but there are still calls for her to resign.CREDIT:NICK MOIR
"The role that the Premier's office had in the shredding of documents is good reason for her departure, she should resign," he said.
NSW Labor is also arguing that the shredding of documents breached the act and has referred Ms Berejiklian to the NSW Police Commissioner for investigation.
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A spokeswoman for the Premier said: "The Premier’s Office complies with its obligations under the State Records Act.”
Mr Harris said while there had been no "persuasive reason" for Ms Berejiklian's resignation on the back of revelations of her relationship with disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire, "enough is way too much".
"I allege that the shredding those documents is unlawful, and so when you package everything up together, it's time for her to go," he said.
A senior policy officer from Ms Berejiklian's office told a parliamentary committee on Fridaythat she provided briefing notes to the Premier with a list of projects – one of them involving $90 million for Hornsby Shire Council – and later shredded the documents.
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Sarah Lau said she gave Ms Berejiklian a "working advice note" and the Premier indicated "on that note that she was comfortable" with the projects.
When asked where the note was, Ms Lau responded: "I then disposed of those working advice notes that I had used to prepare that final record". The final record was an email.
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NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian refuses to resign after ICAC revelations
9News State Political Reporter Chris O'Keefe talks on Gladys Berejiklian refusing to resign as NSW Premier after the ICAC revelations.
The Stronger Communities Fund, established after council mergers in 2016, handed out more than $250 million in grants in Coalition-held electorates in the lead up to last year's state election.
Ms Berejiklian directly approved more than $141 million in council grants.
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Labor's local government spokesman Greg Warren has also written to Information Commissioner Elizabeth Tydd, asking that she investigate "serious and systemic breaches" of the State Records Act 1998 and the Government Information (Public Access) Act 2009.
His letter says the evidence given at Friday's committee hearing "exposed genuinely concerning issues relating to the records management practices of the Office of the Premier of NSW".
"The governance of the program seems to have departed significantly from conventional and accepted practice for a program of this scope and scale," Mr Warren's letter said.
He said the significance of Ms Lau's working advice notes "cannot be underestimated".
Gladys Berejiklian's senior policy adviser Sarah Lau.CREDIT:NSW PARLIAMENT
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"Ms Lau relied entirely on the advice of the working advice notes in the course of advising departmental officials to allocate $141.8 million of the $252 million on behalf of the Premier of NSW," Mr Warren's letter said.
"The specific working advice notes referred to by Ms Lau are the only documentation that contains the original recommendation, including reasons, to the Premier for the expenditure of $141.8 million."
Under the government's formal requirement for ministers' offices records, and a requirement of the act, "briefing notes or papers maintained in the Premier's Office" are "required as state archives."
Mr Warren has also written to Police Commissioner Mick Fuller, telling him he has concerns about a "number of potential offences under section 21 of the State Records Act".
"Under section 21 of the State Records Act 1998 (the Act), a person must not "abandon or dispose of a State record", nor "damage or alter a State record"," Mr Warren's letter said
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