WHILE the muddying of NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian’s public image came as a surprise to many, it had always been anticipated by her closest observers.
The premier had frequently confounded those who knew her – or thought they did.
With this week’s headlines revealing her secret affair with disgraced former MP Daryl Maguire – who’d turned his parliamentary office into a lobbyist shop – the only surprise were the details.
That it had happened wasn’t a shock. Something like this had become expected.
SECRETLY
Hints that the premier wasn’t all she appeared have bubbled along for some time — though concerns were in whispers. When they did make the news, she was portrayed as the person fixing a problem rather than the one who’d actually created it.
It’s telling that Ms Berejiklian publicly instigated Mr Maguire’s removal from parliament, but then secretly continued their five-year relationship despite his inevitable date with the corruption commissioner.
Questionable judgement had become a worrisome pattern.
That the NSW Liberals almost tore themselves in two immediately after the Berejiklian government’s 2019 election victory was a clue that not all was right.
Within months of a hard-fought victory her Party was imploding.
Worse, Party volunteers felt tricked and betrayed. Many vowed not to return for the 2023 election campaign, which is death for a political Party.
What first triggered their anger was the legalising of late term abortions. This was not part of the Liberal Party’s manifesto when they had signed up. It wasn’t an election issue when they had spent their weekends door knocking. Nor was it ever mentioned by anyone while they handed out how-to-vote cards.
Yet, as it turned out, it was among the first pieces of back-door legislation allowed to be passed by the newly re-elected Liberal premier.
Watching her ministers celebrate and hoot their abortion “victory” with Greens MPs only added to the dismay.
“Where did that come from?” was a common response from many embittered Liberal volunteers. “I was tricked!”
Party members who had signed-up Christian family and friends as volunteers copped an absolute lashing. No one had ever dreamed Ms Berejiklian would become a post-election extremist. They still struggle to believe the deception.
LOVE IS LOVE
Next up were moves by the Berejiklian government in late 2019 to water down NSW’s bestiality laws.
Many in the Premier’s own Armenian community were dumbfounded – and personally embarrassed by cultural association.
These “immoral” law changes failed thanks only to the Greens and Animal Justice Party’s blocking them in the upper house.
And when red-faced “moderate” Liberals pretended the government was merely trying to clear courtroom backlogs, it emerged there were on average only seven bestiality cases a year. Seven! Hardly the cause of a judicial bottleneck.
But that’s only the start.
Reluctance to perform hazard reduction burns, global warming infatuation, the repeal of AIDS disclosure requirements to bed partners, turning a blind eye to homosexual indoctrination of children and a single-minded obsession with renewable energy had concerns really piling up.
These “secretive” and unwelcome policy positions didn’t just materialise by accident. They were formulated, or approved, by a premier capable of deceiving Party members, friends and community.
NSW One Nation leader Mark Latham has seen too much and has had enough.
“It’s absolutely laughable and absurd we are still talking about Gladys Berejiklian being in the premier’s office,” he told Sky News anchor Rita Panahi on Friday.
INVESTIGATION
“She’s got a dozen serious breaches that require her to go and probably another dozen matters worthy of investigation.
“Gladys says ‘you know me, I work hard for the people of NSW’.
“Who does really know her?
“After the level of deception in keeping this relationship with her property developer boyfriend a secret for six years, every day for 2000 days leading a lie, a double life at the expense of the people of NSW.”
Mr Latham said the premier had lost touch with reality.
“This is the worst set of scandals since the Askin era and it’s laughable that anyone could defend her for a nano-second.”
One Nation has joined with the Shooters, Fishers & Farmers Party vowing to reject any legislation in the NSW upper house while Ms Berejiklian remains premier.PC
Old story. Gladys rules. You and this whole hate-filled website have no clue how the world really works.
“You […] have no clue how the world really works.”
Well that’s certainly a bold assertion. I recall that Gladys fatuously claimed that the stadia she proposed to rebuild would pay for themselves in two years. Tell us, Ruben: is that how the world in which *you* live “really works”? Do think that a government undertaking can be guaranteed to provide an annual return of 50%? (Maybe *your* world doesn’t have things like finance or common sense; maybe it’s all fairy floss and rainbows and unicorns).
“[…] hate-filled website […]”
Oh dear; it appears that you know as much about psychology as you do about money. This is a classic case of projection – those on the left of the political spectrum hate truth and facts, among many other things, and they project their hatred onto any and all right-thinking and outspoken individuals, who are their mortal enemies. They are full of bile and brimming over with spite, and they are constantly casting about for those whom they might excoriate over even the most trivial matter; they simply cannot rest till they have vented their spleen.
“[…] Gladys rules.”
Gladys is the N.S.W. analogue of Scott Morrison; she is a seat-warmer, a place-holder, a pathetic puppet of her left-wing overlords. Of course, I’m sure that *you* see her as someone who rules; as with a lot of men of left-wing bent, you are no doubt always keen to find a woman to whom you can submit.
Hey everybody – ease off Gladys.
Everybody just smirks and changes the subject when an associate in The Boys Club is tainted and comes under fire. And there are plenty of skeletons in closets. So “Let he who is not guilty …”
And by the way anybody who falls for the opposition’s “dirty tricks” department is either politically naive or a tad hypocritical.
Can’t you see that leaders of the political “right” are suddenly under a very co-ordinated attack in all states? Geez people – just look around and get organised. Please.
And on that subject – all please be prepared to repel boarders when Scott comes under attack. And that will start up any time soon. I don’t know for what or from where but I can absolutely guarantee that they will make a parking ticket look like a capital offence. Labor’s “Dirty Tricks” department is brilliant at that!!
Anyway, regarding “Darrylgate” – I’m not sure of anything any more. The “Ministerial Code of Conduct”, unbeknownst to us all, apparently allowed for Ministers to receive supplicants where the introducing MP may take money for the introduction. The really laughable sequiter to all this is that it was Labor – of all beasts – who proposed and passed a law to abolish that, recently. I had to pick myself up from the floor, laughing!
So the “Maguire protocol” was apparently not then illegal or breached any standards.
Sorry to be cynical but anyway, we have all known that this has been going on since the Rum Rebellion. I’m just bemused that it is Labor exposing the Liberals for this.
Darryl’s activity was still in junior league – even legal as it turned out – compared to the brown paper bags in the Bobby and Nifty days of SP bookies and illegal brothels and casinos, with the odd Darling Harbour contract thrown in for good measure, let alone an Obeid here and there. And we don’t want to even talk about hotels in Fiji in the mid-eighties to mid-nineties at the Federal level… No wonder they were so keen to knock each other off to get the the top spot!
Finally, if there were a few bad “Captain’s Calls” then surely they can be sorted out quietly and skilfully behind closed doors – not tearing my party apart with open-air disputes and inviting in the real villains – the surging socialist splinter groups controlling Labor.
So c’mon people – get real, get serious and get cracking. Man up and support your most effective and popular State leader since Saint Nick!!! We workhorses want to stay in Government. If you don’t, some of you might find yourselves putting up your own placards on polling day (my MP excepted, of course)!
What a crock! Men get booted out over a bottle of wine – or a greyhound policy mistake.
Gladys remains there for one reason only. It’s because she’s a woman.
I like Gladys. She has generally been good for NSW. But the trouble has been the so-called ‘moderates’ who have not been moderate at all. You say:
“Worse, Party volunteers felt tricked and betrayed. Many vowed not to return for the 2023 election campaign, which is death for a political Party.
What triggered their anger was the legalising of late term abortions. This was not part of the Liberal Party’s manifesto when they signed up. It wasn’t an election issue when they spent their weekends door knocking. Nor was it ever mentioned by anyone while they handed out how-to-vote cards.”
The problem was the ‘moderates’ did not know what they were talking about. They averred that abortion was illegal in NSW. It was NOT! Abortion was completely legal if done properly with due regard for the life of the mother. Moderates referred to it being made illegal by the Crimes Act. The Act did not make it illegal. What it did was to provide a penalty for an ‘illegal’ abortion. This was, under the Common Law, one done without proper care for the mother, and which resulted in infertility or ‘wounding’ or hospitalization to correct the procedures carried out, or death of the mother. In effect, an ‘illegal’ operation was one that had all the characteristics of GBH – Grievous Bodily Harm.
I emailed most of the Legislative Councillors on this matter – it had already passed the House of Assembly. Whether of not my emails made a difference I don’t know but the Councillors substantially amended the Bill and returned it to the lower House. From the ‘free-for-all’ that the lower House had approved, the resulting Bill was a much better version. Unfortunately late term abortion is still permitted, but any such must be reported. Abortions must now be done by qualified personnel, and in approved locations. Previously it was legal for any back-street-abortionist to work from the back room.
The No-Net-Emissions scenario must go, it is totally illogical to produce a poor scheme to fix a problem that does not exist except in the minds of the Alarmists.
“I like Gladys.”
That’s understandable – she has the personality of a turnip, and she has wasted billions of dollars of taxpayers’ money on pointless projects that have gone way over budget or that have been abject failures. She claims to be a Christian, but she has shown her rank hypocrisy by facilitating the passage of a law that allows for the slaughter of defenceless and innocent children before they are even born. What’s not to like?
(Maybe she should go back to Armenia; I’m sure that they would value the wonderful contributions she could make there.)
I know her.Typical of the media to jump on negativity of our Premier. She has superbly run NSW. Has support of the public.
Shock us and report on all positives she has achieved and her popularity with the public. If she was a male there would be no media frenzy.
“She has superbly run NSW.”
LOL – by tearing down perfectly good sports stadia and having them re-built at public expense?
“If she was a male there would be no media frenzy.”
Maybe she should get a crew-cut; she could easily pass for a bloke.
“I know her.”
That simple fact alone allows us to gauge just how much your opinions are worth. Maybe you should get to know some of the unborn children who have been sliced to pieces inside their mothers’ wombs, sucked out with a vacuum, dumped in a bucket, and then incinerated in a furnace.
Gladys should not be the first casualty. It is the rotten factions of the NSW Division of the Liberal brand who have engineered this with their gerrymandering of pre-selections often resulting in below grade appointments (of which Gladys is an exception). They should disappear into the sunset.
Unfortunately I believe that despite the good job Gladys has done as Premier she will ultimately have to go. You can’t have a Code of Conduct for some and not for others and there’s the little matter of deception over how close she was to Maguire.