The Independent Commission Against Corruption finds that, between 2012 and August 2018, Daryl Maguire improperly used his office, and the resources to which he had access as a member of Parliament (MP), to benefit G8wayInternational Pty Ltd, a company of which he was in substance a director, and whose profits he had an arrangement to share with others. Mr Maguire also failed to disclose his interest and position in G8wayInternational and/or all the sources of his income, as he was required to do under the Constitution (Disclosure by Members) Regulation 1983.

He also misused his role as an MP to advance his own financial interests, as well as the commercial interests of his associates, in connection with an immigration scheme that he promoted to his constituents and others connected with his electoral district. Also, as an MP and chair of the NSW Parliament Asia Pacific Friendship Group, Mr Maguire misused those roles to advance his own financial interests and the commercial interests of his associates. Other misuse of his office as an MP included attempting to advance his own private financial interests and/or those of people associated with him in connection with the sale and/or development of land in NSW.

Mr Maguire was an enthusiastic advocate for grants of public monies for the Australian Clay Target Association (ACTA), and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music (RCM), two Wagga Wagga-based institutions. Ms Berejiklian had presided over and/or been a member of the Expenditure Review Committee (ERC) meetings that had approved the grants, which comprised $5.5 million for ACTA and $10 million for refurbishing and repurposing a new government-owned site to make it fit-for-purpose for the RCM (RCM Stage 1).  At the same time, Mr Maguire and Ms Berejiklian were in an undisclosed close personal relationship.

The Commission finds that Ms Berejiklian engaged in serious corrupt conduct by breaching public trust in 2016 and 2017 through exercising her official functions in relation to funding promised and/or awarded to ACTA, without disclosing her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire, when she was in a position of a conflict of interest between her public duty and her private interest, which could objectively have the potential to influence the performance of her public duty. The Commission also finds that in the same period, Ms Berejiklian partially exercised her official functions, in connection with funding promised to ACTA, influenced by the existence of her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire.

The Commission finds that Ms Berejiklian took a number of actions in relation to the ACTA proposal in circumstances where she knew that Mr Maguire was its principal proponent. These included, when she was treasurer, causing the proposal to be included on the agenda and supporting it at the ERC meeting on 14 December 2016 and when she was premier, causing steps to be taken by staff from her office to follow up on the progress of the ACTA proposal following the ERC ACTA decision. This included by communicating a request that the initial benefit–cost ratio (BCR) calculation of 0.88, by the Department of Premier and Cabinet Investment Appraisal Unit, be revisited. This ultimately led to it achieving a BCR satisfactory for Infrastructure NSW to approve its funding.

In 2018, Ms Berejiklian also partially exercised her official functions, influenced by the existence of her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire, or by a desire on her part to maintain or advance that relationship, in connection with funding promised and awarded to a proposal to build a recital hall for the RCM (RCM Stage 2). The Commission finds that she breached public trust by exercising her official functions in relation to decisions concerning the RCM proposal which she knew was advanced by Mr Maguire.

Her conduct regarding the RCM proposals included participating in decisions at ERC meetings in April 2018 about the RCM proposal Stage 1 to transfer land for the conservatorium, and in relation to the funding granted to the RCM, without declaring a conflict of interest as required by the NSW Ministerial Code of Conduct (“the ministerial code”). Ms Berejiklian also determined to make a $20–million funding reservation for Stage 2 of the proposal, and approved the letter arranging for that funding reservation to be made, without disclosing her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire. This meant the reserved funds, which entailed a significant sum of public monies, could not be spent on other projects until they were released.

This was at a time when she was in a position of a conflict of interest between her public duty and her private interest in maintaining or advancing her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire, which could objectively have had the potential to influence the performance of her public duty. Ms Berejiklian submitted to the Commission that, as premier, the ministerial code did not apply to her. The Commission rejects that submission, and finds that Ms Berejiklian substantially breached the ministerial code by failing in her duty to act honestly and in the public interest in her conduct regarding the RCM proposal. The Commission further rejects Ms Berejiklian’s submission that her close personal relationship with Mr Maguire could not amount to a private interest under the ministerial code.

The Commission also finds that Ms Berejiklian engaged in serious corrupt conduct by refusing to discharge her duty under section 11 of the ICAC Act to notify the Commission of her suspicion that Mr Maguire had engaged in activities which concerned, or might have concerned, corrupt conduct. At the time Ms Berejiklian failed to report her suspicions to the Commission, she was the premier of the state. The report notes that Ms Berejiklian must have known that she was not entitled to refuse to exercise her official functions for her own private benefit, or for the benefit of Mr Maguire. To do so to conceal conduct she suspected concerned, or have might concerned, corrupt conduct on the part of Mr Maguire, another member of Parliament, both to protect herself and him from the Commission exercising its investigative powers was grave misconduct. It undermined the high standards of probity that are sought to be achieved by the ministerial code which, as premier, Ms Berejiklian substantially administered.