Berejiklian,who as premierpushed for his resignation,had been expected to give straightforward evidence about her attempt to force him out of parliament. The ICAC had started the hearing early to accommodate her busy schedule as premier,and her evidence was expected to be brief.

Instead,about 20 minutes in,she revealed the close,personal relationship. During an excruciating examination the ICAC played phone taps in which Maguire used the Armenian term of endearment “hawkiss”. The premier called him her “numero uno”. Even her closest political allies were caught completely off guard by the disclosure.

She didn’t reveal the relationship because she was “a very private person”,and did not believe that it “had sufficient substance for it to be made public”.

Later that afternoon,flanked by then-treasurer and future premier Dominic Perrottet and health minister Brad Hazzard,she began laying the groundwork for her public defence of the matter.

Berejiklian said she had “stuffed up in my personal life”. She would not resign,she said,“because I haven’t done anything wrong”.

The narrative of a personal failing was repeated ad nauseam. She gave a soft-focus interview with an entertainment journalist in which she revealed she had hoped to marry Maguire but had now “given up on love”. On the commercial radio station KISS FM she told radio personality Kyle Sandilands she felt “stronger” as a result of the scandal.

The framing was effective. Berejiklian’s failings were personal,not ethical,she contended,and after an initial storm of controversy,it appeared her leadership would survive the scandal.

But the intercepted calls hinted at more than just a woman unlucky in love. Maguire had been in debt to the tune of about $1.5 million. He talked about winning commissions on property sales by acting as a go-between. During one call in 2017,Maguire referred to his efforts to broker a $330 million sale of land owned by the Waterhouse racing dynasty near Badgerys Creek.

“That’s good,” Berejiklian replied,before adding:“I don’t need to know that bit”.

“No,you do not need to know that,” he said.

What she knew,or ought to have known,would become a key focus of ICAC. As would her many sympathetic interviews.

In October 2021,almost a year to the day after those first explosive hearings,Berejiklian resigned. It came shortly after ICAC revealed it was investigating whether she broke the law by failing to report some of Maguire’s conduct.

The ICAC focused on whether the premier engaged in conduct that amounted to conflict between her public duties “and her private interest as a person who was in a personal relationship” with the disgraced Wagga Wagga MP.

“I state categorically I have always acted with the highest level of integrity,” she said in a statement announcing her resignation.

“History will demonstrate I have executed my duties again with the highest level of integrity for the benefit of the people of NSW for who I have had the privilege to serve.”

The ICAC identified grants to two organisations in Wagga – the Australian Clay Target Association and the Riverina Conservatorium of Music in 2018 – as central pillars of its probe into whether she had failed to declare a conflict in the exercise of her duties as premier.

Maguire had personally lobbied for the projects.

While she denied giving those projects any preferential treatment,public servants gave evidence to the inquiry that she appeared to have a personal interest in the gun club grant,despite it not having the support of the bureaucracy.

In her second appearance before the corruption watchdog,she remained defiant. She would not have disclosed her relationship with Maguire if she had her time again because it had not met a threshold she had set for herself.

It was an extraordinary stance for a famously rule-abiding premier. While Maguire had been part of her “love circle”,she did not feel “there was a commitment which I would be able to share with my parents or my sisters”.

Others disagreed. Former premier,Mike Baird,a close ally of Berejiklian’s,had been “incredulous” when he learned of the relationship. It “should have been disclosed”,he told ICAC.

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