Saturday, 27 July 2024

Disgraced former Liberal Premier of NSW Gladys Berejiklian gets no joy from her Supreme Court appeal of ICAC corrupt conduct findings


IMAGE: Nationwide News, 26 July 2024


Gladys Berejiklian joined the Liberal Party of Australia in 1991 whilst at the University of Sydney and was President of the NSW Young Liberals in 1996 - 1997.


Between 1998 - 2003 she describes her employment as "Executive, Commonwealth Bank of Australia".


Ms Berejiklian was elected as the Liberal Member for Willoughby in the NSW Legislative Assembly in March 2003. An elected position she held for 18 years, 9 months and 9 days - first as a member of the Opposition, then as a Minster of the Crown, then as NSW Premier & finally as a backbench member of a Coalition Government she had recently led, until 'retiring' in disgrace on 30 December 2021.


In June 2023 Ms. Berejiklian was the subject of adverse findings made in a two-volume report (Vol 1 at pp.13-14) of the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) titled “Investigation into the conduct of the then member of Parliament for Wagga Wagga and then Premier and others (Operation Keppel)”.


This report followed the October 2021 announcement that ICAC would conduct a further public inquiry in Operation Keppel investigating whether between 2012 and 2018, as a Minister of the Crown, as Treasurer or as Premier, Gladys Berejiklian had engaged in corrupt conduct.


Ms Berejiklian appealed the findings of the ICAC report in the Supreme Court-Court of Appeal, principally claiming material errors of law in or in relation to the ICAC report findings.


She lost in a judgment delivered on Friday, 26 July 2024, which stated in part:

"Decision: Amended Summons dismissed with costs.....

In the result, each ground of review has been rejected. Ms Berejiklian ’s application to quash the Commission’s findings of “serious corrupt conduct” or to have those findings declared as made without or in excess of jurisdiction should be dismissed, with costs."


The final outcome of Gladys Berejiklian's effort to quash the ICAC findings of "serious corrupt conduct", is a lengthy Court of Appeal judgment containing reasons which once more bring the details of her conduct to the attention of the general public and includes transcript excerpts of conversations with her then "intimate" friend and fellow member of parliament.


Currently Ms Berejiklian is on the executive board of telecommunications company Singtel Optus Pty Ltd as Managing Director, Enterprise and Business.


Annual director remuneration in Singtel subsidiary companies is posited to be in the vicinity of $1 million. [Singtel Annual Report 2024, Notes to the Financial Statements For the financial year ended 31 March 2024, p.157]


Singtel Optus is a fully-owned subsidiary of Singapore Telecommunications Limited (Singtel) headquartered in Singapore and is listed in AEC political donor annual organisation returns from 1998-99 to 2022-23.

https://www.optus.com.au/about/corporate/executive-profiles




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