“At all times I’ve acted in the best interests of this state. “My next question would be, ‘What are the sanctions?’ The Icac could make an adverse finding, but I think the real question is the politics, and what the party room decide to do.”īerejiklian told reporters last week after giving evidence at the commission she had “at all times” kept her private and public interests apart.
#Gladys berejiklian code
At what point do you cross the line? At some point it’s splitting hairs and you could argue the premier has breached the ministerial code of conduct,” he said. “What does intimate mean under the act? Does it have to be some form of betrothal and future plans for an engagement? This is the problem with trying to define it. Stewart Jackson, a senior lecturer in politics at the University of Sydney, told Guardian Australia it appeared Berejiklian was “splitting hairs” in her definition of the relationship. What she had to do about it, legal minds may differ, but she had to do something.” To my mind there’s no relationship exception to that, she had to do something about it. “If you set it at any level lower than no tolerance, you’ve failed. “It does seem to me as though a question arises in setting an anti-corruption culture that it is set at the top,” he said. Geoffrey Watson SC, a former counsel assisting the commission, told Guardian Australia it was clear the premier “had to do something” about her relationship with Maguire.
He seems to have disclosed to her a conflict of interest between his public duty and private interests in the business dealings.”
That means that if a potential conflict of interest had arisen, the premier should have disclosed it. That brings Maguire under the definition of ‘family member’ in the regulation. “I think that amounts to an intimate personal relationship. The relationship was kept secret from the world for five years or more. We know they discussed some of Maguire’s business dealings. The premier has used the expression ‘close personal relationship’ and has reportedly said she was in love with Maguire and had an idea of marriage to him. “The ordinary meaning is: closely acquainted, familiar, private, personal. “What is an ‘intimate’ personal relationship? I don’t think it requires sexual connection,” he said. The former head of the NSW Department of Public Prosecutions, Nicholas Cowdery, told Guardian Australia that because the word “intimate” is not further defined in the Icac Act, the words “carry their ordinary English meaning”. The code falls under the purview of the Icac Act, which states that a minister, including the premier, must disclose potential conflict matters that involve a “family member”.Ī breach of the act would leave it open to the commission to make an adverse finding against the premier. The distinction is vital because under the NSW ministerial code of conduct the definition of a family member includes “any person with whom the minister is in an intimate personal relationship”. Labor says the disclosure, made in a soft-ball interview with the celebrity and gossip columnist Annette Sharp, contradicts the careful wording the premier has previously used to describe the relationship she maintained with Maguire since at least 2015. But on Sunday, Berejiklian said in an interview with Sydney’s Sunday Telegraph she had been in love with Maguire and thought they “could” eventually marry.
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