• It was a sad way to get exposed!
• Gladys Berejiklian, the New South Wales premier was allegedly in a secret relationship with the disgraced MP, Daryl Maguire who is currently facing corruption charges.

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During the corruption investigation, phone calls between the two politicians were heard and went public. So what is the truth?

Gladys Berejiklian faces journalists

The disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP, Daryl Maguire, 61 had a very close relationship with the New South Wales premier, Gladys Berejiklian. Labor has earlier accused Gladys, 50 of turning a blind eye to the ongoing corruption in the political circle and administration.

But she had refused. On Tuesday afternoon, she had a press conference and journalists bombarded her with questions related to her relationship with Daryl.

But Gladys continued to plead innocence and said that she had committed no wrong. She said:

‘I will not tolerate, never have, and never will, any improper conduct by any MP,’

Gladys continues to maintain that she is innocent and did not know that Daryl was doing something wrong behind her back. Hence, she said that she would not resign from her post.

Daryl and the corruption charges

On Monday 12 October 2020, there was a corruption inquiry against Daryl. During the session, phone calls were heard. In one phone call, Daryl called Gladys his babe, and Gladys also called him numero uno (Spanish for number one).

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Daryl resigned from Parliament in 2018. But he has charges against him of using his position as an MP to get money from brokering high-value property deals.

The corruption body ICAC ran another phone call in which Daryl talked about how he would be making money from a property deal. The property was situated at Badgerys Creek in western Sydney.

He said that the deal was nearly done and at this point, Gladys said:

‘I don’t need to know about that bit.’  

It is alleged that the two have been in a secretive relationship from 2015 to August 2020. They had kept it a secret even from their family, friends, and the public.

Journalists pose questions

Sky News political editor Andrew Clennell stated that the whole scenario makes it clear that Gladys knew that Daryl was doing corruption but decided to not look at it. Andrew said:

‘Premier he told you on the call,’

Gladys replied:

‘I was absolutely not aware, which is why I didn’t report anything.

‘The matters before the ICAC involving Mr Maguire are subject to those investigations. I stress again I did nothing wrong. If I had, I would be the first to put my hand up.

‘Mr Maguire approached a number of people in government, a number of public servants. 

‘He was rigorous in his attempts and his attempts amounted to nothing. His attempts amounted to nothing.

‘This person had been in parliament for 15 years. And unfortunately, sometimes people are able to get away with things without a lot of people realizing.’ 

Daryl was estranged for many years from his wife Maureen. He had two children with her and they recently divorced. Talking about her relationship with Daryl, she said:

‘It is a very subjective and personal thing as to when you think something changed from a friendship to a close personal relationship… I was as open as I could be for someone who is very private,’

She admitted to dating him but did not know about his misconduct. She also added that the reason she kept it a secret was that she was not sure of it and did not know whether it had a future or not.