Noconfidence motion defeated
SYDNEY: New South Wales Premier Gladys Berejiklian has survived a noconfidence vote brought on by opposition leader Jodi McKay, who accused her of turning a blind eye to corruption.
The noconfidence motion was defeated 4738 in the lower house yesterday, while the same motion was also defeated in the upper house, after a tied vote forced chairman John Ajaka to weigh in and cast the deciding negative vote.
The narrow escape came amid a rowdy day in the legislature after Berejiklian spent a third day battling to keep her job as her former boyfriend Daryl Maguire faced a grilling at the Independent Commission Against Corruption
(ICAC).
McKay told parliament that while Berejiklian was entitled to have a private life, her ‘‘close personal relationship’’ with the disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP was a ‘‘damning indictment on her ability to run a government’’.
‘‘This is a premier who failed to act . . . and turned a blind eye to wrongdoing,’’ she told the NSW lower house yesterday.
‘‘If we accept Gladys Berejiklian as premier we are saying the utterly unacceptable is OK.
‘‘If the premier stays, your government is forever diminished.’’
In response, NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet said Berejiklian had demonstrated ‘‘complete honesty and integrity’’.
The premier continued to insist she had done nothing wrong. Phone intercepts played at ICAC on Monday recounted numerous occasions in 2017 and 2018 in which Maguire — who resigned from the NSW parliament in 2018 in connection to a separate ICAC inquiry — discussed his business dealings with Berejiklian.
In parliament, Berejiklian again insisted she had no inkling her exboyfriend’s dealings might be dodgy and said she had been ‘‘full and frank’’ in giving evidence to the inquiry.
‘‘At any stage, had myself or any of my colleagues or the public servants who were in contact with him picked up that there was any wrongdoing, it would have been reported,’’ Berejiklian said.
‘‘I bet there are times when you thought you could trust someone and you couldn’t.’’
Maguire told the ICAC inquiry yesterday he had received envelopes full of thousands of dollars in cash at his parliament office as part of a scheme for Chinese nationals to fraudulently acquire visas.
He agreed with the ICAC that the scheme, where Chinese nationals paid large sums for a business in NSW to pretend they were employed there, was a scam.
Maguire and his business associate, Maggie Wang, received up to A$20,000 ($NZ21,500) for each business they recruited to the scheme. He agreed it was a breach of public trust. — AAP/Reuters