Gladys Berejiklian has become the Fairy Princess of the right. The right of politics are zealously defending their favoured female leader against reputational attacks and staunchly maintaining that she is a strong, capable leader.
That last assertion was already looking shaky enough. The Ruby Princess fiasco, for instance, was a farce only outdone by the hotel quarantine disaster in Victoria. Like Andrews, though, Berejiklian slithered off the hook with an insincere “apology” but no-one taking responsibility. There’s also the role of her state’s mismanagement of forestry contributing to the 2020 bushfire disaster. Not to mention her unedifying public spats with her deputy.
But it is the sight of Berejiklian being dragged through admittedly humiliating public questioning at ICAC hearings into her formerly secret lover’s alleged corruption that really has chivalrous conservatives puffing.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption has disgraced itself. It has behaved like a peeping Tom that gets its jollies by prying into a woman’s relationship with her boyfriend, quizzing her about what she meant by particular terms of endearment and leaving her vulnerable to ridicule.
None of that should have happened in public. This agency has overstepped the mark and removed all doubt that the law governing public hearings needs to change.
While it’s true that Berejiklian has already been questioned about much of this material already in a private interview, the fact remains that the allegations are serious. The premier of NSW was secretly romantically involved with a person who has already admitted a lengthy record of corruption.
This agency was right to investigate whether the NSW Premier had turned a blind eye to the dodgy conduct of her then boyfriend, former politician Daryl Maguire. It was also right to require her to attend a secret compulsory examination. This, by the way, is where she would have learned that ICAC had been eavesdropping for years on their telephone conversations.
That private hearing was appropriate but should never have been followed by a public hearing. This is because ICAC appears to be working on a case theory in which the personal relationship of the Premier and her boyfriend was inextricably linked to the question of whether this led her to remaining silent about improper conduct — an accusation Berejiklian denies.
That meant it would have been impossible to pursue ICAC’s case theory without also delving into the nature of the relationship with Maguire and trampling on her privacy. That was not a problem so long as it was done behind closed doors.
Well, deny it she may – but it’s a perfectly reasonable case theory. Which then poses the question: why should these allegations be tested outside the public gaze?
Section 31 of the ICAC Act says it can only hold public hearings after considering several factors including whether the public interest in exposing certain conduct “is outweighed by the public interest in preserving the privacy of the persons concerned”. Another factor that must be considered is “any risk of undue prejudice to a person’s reputation”. What happened this week shows those provisions are worthless. The Premier’s privacy and the risk of reputational damage should have been given substantial weight.
Why? These are very serious allegations. Justice must be seen to be done, surely?
It’s now emerged that Berejiklian was fully aware of one multi-million-dollar deal that Maguire pulled off and that Maguire orchestrated a “drop-in” meeting in parliament between Ms Berejiklian and property developer Joseph Alha – meaning that the meeting was conveniently left off the official record.
Berejiklian is also refusing to answer questions about using taxpayer-funded travel to arrange liaisons with her covert paramour.
All of this is enough to cast a massive enough cloud of stink over the premier that, reputational damage or not, it seems entirely reasonable for her to face questions in public. The NSW public pays Ms Berejiklian’s salary. They have a right to know how she conducts herself on their dime.
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