Corrupt? No big deal, Gladys. Collect a $200,000-a-year pension as you pass go

One of the more perplexing political phenomenons in NSW over recent years is the special place Gladys Berejiklian still holds in the hearts and minds of many voters.

Thankfully, the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption is far more clear-eyed and views the former premier more of a crook than a political hero.

After an exhaustive public inquiry, the ICAC in June 2023 found Berejiklian engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” through her secret relationship with ex-MP Daryl Maguire.

As state political editor Alexandra Smith observed at the time, this was no tragic love story. Rather, as Smith wrote, the highest elected official in the state knowingly turned a blind eye to the actions of her long-term boyfriend.

The ICAC found that Berejiklian engaged in “serious corrupt conduct by breaching public trust” through the awarding of grants that Maguire had personally lobbied for “without disclosing her close personal relationship” with the then-Wagga Wagga MP.

The report found Berejiklian took steps to award grants pushed by Maguire based on a “desire on her part to maintain or advance” her relationship with him.

Berejiklian’s conflict could “objectively have the potential to influence the performance of her public duty”, the ICAC found. The then premier “took a number of actions” which led to the awarding of a $5.5 million grant to a Wagga Wagga gun club. It found she also breached the public trust by advancing another $10 million grant to a conservatorium of music in Wagga.

It also found she engaged in serious corrupt conduct by refusing to discharge her duty to report her suspicion of activities which concerned, or might have concerned, corrupt conduct.

Berejiklian did not face criminal charges, and after her resignation, she landed an executive role with the scandal-plagued Optus network on a reported salary of more than $1 million a year. Jackpot!

But the wins don’t stop there. As revealed by the Herald on Tuesday, the former premier recently turned 55, meaning she is entitled to receive a taxpayer-funded annual pension of at least $200,000 for life. Berejiklian also has the ability to ask for the cash as a lump-sum payment. As a nice bonus, any annual pension will also be tax-free once she turns 60.

Imagine a scenario in which any other minister or premier was found corrupt but did not face charges and retained an annual pension. The public would quite rightly be protesting outside NSW Parliament.

In NSW, though, where Saint Gladys still rules, not a peep from Macquarie Street. Awarding a taxpayer-funded pension to a former premier found to have engaged in serious corrupt conduct is a disgrace. The entitlement should have been removed the moment she exhausted all appeals against the ICAC’s findings.

The Herald encourages parliament to hold an inquiry into amending the Parliamentary Contributory Superannuation Act to make sure this situation can’t be repeated. And while ever Berejiklian is handed $200,000 a year for life, MPs should go easy on lecturing the public about tight budgets and tough fiscal decisions.

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