Berejiklian begins pitch to overturn corruption verdict

A court will hear an appeal by former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian to overturn findings that she engaged in corruption through her clandestine relationship with a fellow MP.

A two-day hearing set to begin in the NSW Court of Appeal on Monday will challenge Independent Commission Against Corruption findings that she breached public trust by refusing to report her liaison with disgraced Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

Ms Berejiklian has retained high-profile barrister Bret Walker SC to argue that ICAC’s findings, which effectively ended her political career, should be set aside.

ICAC found Ms Berejiklian breached public trust by not reporting her liaison with Daryl Maguire. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)

One of the scenarios constituting “serious corrupt conduct” included Ms Berejiklian sitting on a cabinet committee considering multimillion-dollar funding arrangements pushed by Maguire to benefit his Wagga Wagga electorate.

Between 2016 and 2018, as treasurer and then premier, Ms Berejiklian was involved in approving or supporting allocations of $5.5 million for the Wagga-based Australian Clay Target Association and $10 million for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music.

“Her deliberate failure to disclose the relationship in those circumstances, knowing her public duty, was wilful,” the corruption watchdog said in its findings.

“It was also in bad faith: there was no reasonable excuse or justification for it.”

But ICAC stopped short of recommending criminal charges against the former premier, citing “formidable” obstacles to prosecution.

In her court summons, Ms Berejiklian argued the corruption findings were “illogical or irrational” because the watchdog said there was insufficient evidence to prove the accusations to the criminal standard.

She also claimed former judge Ruth McColl, who was appointed assistant commissioner to help with the inquiry, did not have the authority to prepare the ICAC report.

Following the report’s explosive release in June, Ms Berejiklian stated publicly that she had always worked her hardest in the public interest.