Icac inquiry live updates: Maguire told property developer he would deliver letter to Berejiklian
Maguire #Maguire
10.56pm EDT 22:56
What we’ve learned so far.
While we’re on this long, long, long break, let me fill you in on what’s happened so far today.
10.07pm EDT 22:07
We were really starting to get into the detail there of what the premier knew or didn’t know about Maguire’s involvement with the Badgerys Creek deal.
We know from the phone intercept that we heard (for a second time, it was played on Monday when the premier gave evidence) that Maguire had told her he hoped to wipe off his $1.5m debt if the sale of the Waterhouse land went ahead.
So far, though, Maguire has told the inquiry he doesn’t remember what, if anything, else he told Berejiklian about his involvement.
I’m uh, curious, to say the least, about what’s going on in the private session, and am instead stuck listening to Icac’s awful hold music.
Updated at 10.08pm EDT
9.54pm EDT 21:54
Icac goes dark.
Ah. It looks like we’re going into a private session.
Robertson makes the submission to close the hearing to the public (and nosey journalists) temporarily. He did the same when Berejiklian gave evidence on Monday.
The relationship, he says, is relevant to the inquiry, and he needs to question Maguire on it, but, he says Icac should not be “a public trial as to the nature and extent of the relationship” between Maguire and Berejiklian.
Robertson:
Given it trespasses on matters of considerable personal privacy, in my respectful sub, the public interest of dealing with these matters in public … in the case of the particular matters I now want to put to Mr Maguire is outweighed and in my submission significantly outweighed … by the privacy of Mr Maguire and Ms Berejiklian.
Updated at 9.56pm EDT
9.52pm EDT 21:52
Robertson takes Maguire to he and Berejiklian’s plans for “a potential future for you both going forward”.
Robertson:
One of the things you were considering and to your understanding she was considering was whether to make your relationship more public.
Maguire:
Maguire agrees that that would have only happened if he retired, and says that by late in September he had made up his mind to retire. Robertson suggests that would be “contingent or at least affected” by his financial position.
Maguire:
I was going regardless in my mind.
He tells Robertson he “certainly did broach the subject” of his retirement with Berejiklian.
9.45pm EDT 21:45
Robertson is pushing Maguire on what he told Berejiklian on the Badgerys Creek deal.
“I can’t recall,” he says.
Robertson is trying to pin him down on what Berejiklian knew. Maguire concedes he spoke to the premier in general detail about his business affairs, but says he doesn’t remember what exactly he told her.
Robertson:
Presumably you might have told her Ms Waterhouse had some relevance to what you call the Badgerys Creek stuff?
Maguire:
Robertson:
Maguire:
I’m not sure, I’m just not sure.
Updated at 10.03pm EDT
9.42pm EDT 21:42
‘On again off again’: Maguire discusses relationship with premier.
And now we’re back to Maguire and Gladys Bereijklian. Robertson plays the call between the two of them in which he tells the premier that it “looks like we’ve got the Badgerys Creek stuff done”
He tells her he will be able to pay off his debts.
Can you believe it, in one sale.
She says: I can believe it.
Robertson:
At the time of this call were you in close personal relationship with Ms Berejiklian.
Maguire:
Robertson:
Maguire:
Not after this I wouldn’t be.
Maguire confirms they had been in close personal relationship from about 2015, but that it was “a bit on again off again”.
Updated at 9.44pm EDT
9.37pm EDT 21:37
Robertson asks Maguire whether, on the basis of that call, it was “clear to you in the event of the sale that you would be looked after?”
Maguire agrees.
Robertson:
Looked after you so well you would be in a position to pay off your debts?
Maguire:
9.34pm EDT 21:34
‘Pretty good going’, Maguire told sale of Waterhouse land could net $330m.
We’re played a phone intercept between William Luong and Daryl Maguire in which Luong says he believes he’s found a buyer for the Waterhouse land.
Maguire asks how much, and Luong tells him $330m.
Maguire:
$330m, that’s pretty good going.
It’s “good for everybody all around”, he says.
It’s nice to try and help people, I like to help people.
9.28pm EDT 21:28
Maguire says he had “considered” that the sale of the Smart.West land might net him a $1.5m commission.
Yes, I had considered that, yes.
Robertson:
In the event the sale was successful you stood to get a fee of at least $1.5m?
Maguire:
As we’ve previously heard, Maguire had debts in the range of $1.5m and wanted to pay them off before retiring at the 2019 election.
Updated at 9.42pm EDT
9.25pm EDT 21:25
For the second time today, Maguire agrees he was a “door opener” to public officials. This time, in relation to the Waterhouse deal.
Robertson shows Maguire a message he sent to Waterhouse in which he tells her that he has spoken to the roads minister, Melinda Pavey. This was in relation to the relocation of an intersection, which Waterhouse was seeking.
We’ve previously heard Maguire and Waterhouse met with one of Pavey’s staff members. The staffer came away from the meeting slightly bemused by the interaction, and the intersection was never moved.
Updated at 10.27pm EDT
9.20pm EDT 21:20
Robertson probes Maguire on his relationship with Country Garden, the Chinese development company which owns large tracts of land surrounding the western Sydney airport zone.
Robertson:
You sought to get them involved in a number of projects including the Smart.West project?
Maguire:
I can’t remember whether it was me or Mr Luong [the agent who was helping find a buyer or investor for Waterhouse] who got them involved.
Robertson:
Did you provide any assistance to Country Garden in obtaining relationships or trying to build relationships with any government officials?
Maguire:
Um, my recollection says there was a lunch held at some point with the new managing director of Country Garden at their request.
Robertson now takes Maguire to a ministerial diary showing a meeting between Maguire, Country Garden, and the planning minister. Maguire agrees he arranged that meeting, saying it was a “general meet and greet”.
Maguire:
Nothing specific was spoken about but Country Garden wanted to make an impression … they wanted to pay their respects to the minister.
Robertson asks Maguire whether he was ever consider or hoping to have a consultant role or any other job with Country Garden “during or post” his political career.
Maguire:
It was touched on at some point.
Robertson:
And was that a factor you took into account when doing things like setting up [the meeting with the minister]?
Maguire:
Updated at 9.21pm EDT
9.02pm EDT 21:02
Robertson again asks Maguire whether he thought he would receive a “substantial commission or other payment arising from the sale of the Smart.West land or part of that land”.
Maguire:
At some point it was suggested to me.
Not by Waterhouse, he clarifies, but one of the agents he arranged for her to deal with.
Maguire though is insisting he was not motivated primarily or solely by money, and that he was concerned about issues faced by residents in Western Sydney.
McColl interjects:
Why, Mr Maguire, you’re the member for Wagga.
She asks why he didn’t just introduce Waterhouse to the local MP. He says he did, but eventually concedes that his involvement had nothing to do with his role as either an MP or parliamentary secretary.
Updated at 9.02pm EDT
8.55pm EDT 20:55
And we’re back. Robertson is still pushing Maguire on his business relationship with Louise Waterhouse.
Robertson points Maguire to an appointment for 26 April, 2017, eight days after he emailed Waterhouse about discussing the Badgerys Creek development.
The meeting included Waterhouse and three other individuals. Robertson asks whether those three people, including at least two people who Maguire had existing business relationships, were “potential participants” in Waterhouse’s Smart.West development.
Yes, Maguire agrees, “or sources of advice”.
Robertson puts it to Maguire that he hoped “one of these individuals might be able to assist Ms Waterhouse making some money and you sharing some of those profits with whoever might be assisting”.
Maguire:
8.42pm EDT 20:42
We’ve just taken a short break.
Before that, Robertson was pushing Maguire on what was driving him to make these deals while still in parliament. We’ve previously heard the former MP was in debt to the tune about about $1.5m. He tells Icac he had made up his mind to retire before the next election, and “would have retired regardless of my financial position”.
He wanted to be in a position to “engage in work once I retired”.
Robertson puts it to him that his reason for engaging with Waterhouse was an ambition to wipe off some of that debt before announcing his retirement – something we’ve heard previously during phone intercepts between he and Berejiklian.
Maguire:
Not entirely, but I’ll agree.
8.27pm EDT 20:27
We’re hearing about those early conversations between Maguire and Louise Waterhouse. After he returned from a trip to the South Pacific he emailed Waterhouse to suggest a meeting to discuss “the other matter we discussed”.
That other matter, he says, was her Smart.West development in Badgerys Creek.
After some back and forth about why the Wagga Wagga MP would care about a property development in Western Sydney, Maguire says that Waterhouse “wanted to find some partners or businesses that might join with her” to get her development across the line.
Robertson puts it to Maguire that he hoped to find those investors and get paid a commission.
Maguire:
Certainly people who might invest.
Robertson pushes him further. He wanted to find investors specifically so that he could gain a commission or introductory fee “or other amount of money”.
Maguire:
8.10pm EDT 20:10
Robertson has been revisiting some evidence from yesterday, namely that Maguire, as the honorary chair of a Shenzen commerce group, took trips to the South Pacific in which, Icac alleges, he improperly presented himself as working on behalf of the government when in fact he was pursuing business interests.
Maguire admits he was a “door opener” for the Shenzen group, and was acting outside of his role as a public official.
We then hear about a meeting Maguire had on 5 April 2017 with Louise Waterhouse. Robertson puts it to Maguire that he was asking her “for her assistance in setting up meetings and things of that kind”.
Maguire says he wanted to brief Waterhouse about the Shenzen group.
Robertson then reads a snippet from an email Waterhouse sent to Maguire after the meeting in which she mentions their “confidential discussion” about an “exciting project” in Badgerys Creek.
Updated at 8.17pm EDT
7.58pm EDT 19:58
We’ve moved on to Maguire’s relationship with the racing heir Louise Waterhouse. We’ve previously heard that Maguire hoped to raise hundreds of thousands of dollars assisting her in the rezoning of land her family owns near the site of the proposed western Sydney airport.
Robertson:
Do you agree that you provided assistance to Ms Louise Waterhouse in relation the to propose sale or development of land … in Badgerys Creek?
Maguire:
Robertson asks Maguire how he met Waterhouse. He says it was “through the Tongan consulate”, where Waterhouse is honorary consul general.
Updated at 8.04pm EDT
7.53pm EDT 19:53
‘I’ll give it to her all right’ – Maguire tells property developer friend he’d deliver letter to Berejiklian
Robertson is taking Maguire through a series of favours Maguire did for the property developer Joe Alha.
The two were “great mates”, Maguire says, and had discussed the idea of working together when he left parliament. Robertson asks if that’s why Maguire worked so hard on Alha’s behalf arranging meetings. He puts it to Maguire that he was Alha’s “direct line to government”.
Maguire says he did not do it because he was hoping to seek employment with Alha.
We’re played a phone intercept in which Maguire is instructing an agitated Alha on how to deal with a development issue. He’s instructing him to “pour your heart out” in a letter to the planning minister, Anthony Roberts, and tells him to “CC the premier”, Gladys Berejiklian.
How do I get the email, Alha asks?
Maguire:
I’ll fix it. I’ll give it to her all right.
Maguire then says he can’t recall if he ever delivered the letter to the premier.
Before that we were played a phone intercept in which Alha tells Maguire he wants a meeting with the transport minister, Andrew Constance.
Alha:
I just want some clarity if they are moving the train station … I want some fucking straight answers.
Maguire:
I’ll go and have a chat.
We’re told the meeting never went ahead.
Updated at 8.03pm EDT