<?xml version="1.0" encoding="ISO-8859-1"?> <docID>338466</docID> <postdate>2025-02-17 16:57:19</postdate> <headline>‘Do me a favour’: MP ‘misled’ watchdog over taped calls</headline> <body><p><img class="size-full wp-image-338468" src="https://citynews.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2025/02/20230207001760761781-original-resized.jpg" alt="" width="900" height="601" /></p> <caption>Former Liberal MP Daryl Maguire denies giving misleading evidence to the NSW ICAC. (Bianca De Marchi/AAP PHOTOS)</caption> <p><span class="kicker-line">By <strong>Duncan Murray</strong> in Sydney</span></p> <p><strong>Disgraced MP Daryl Maguire allegedly expected a cut of a $48 million property deal he helped broker for a Chinese-based "client" and later made misleading comments about his aims to a corruption watchdog, a court has been told</strong></p> <p>The former member for Wagga Wagga - whose clandestine relationship with ex-NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian helped lead to her political downfall - has pleaded not guilty to one charge of giving misleading evidence to the NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption.</p> <p>Prosecutors allege Maguire gave the evidence at an ICAC hearing in July 2018 about what he expected to get out of the sale of a development in Sydney's southwest.</p> <p>A three-day hearing that began in Sydney's Downing Centre Local Court on Monday was played a covertly recorded phone call between Maguire and then-Canterbury councillor Michael Hawatt from May 2016.</p> <p>Maguire could be heard telling Hawatt he had a buyer interested in major residential developments, which the court heard was a Chinese-owned company, Country Garden.</p> <p>"Can you do me a favour? I need a few things to feed my friends," the Liberal politician said in the call.</p> <p>"What have you got on your books? Have you got anything DA-approved?"</p> <p>The pair then discussed a particular development in Campsie about which Maguire asked: "What's the margin in it for you?"</p> <p>The development involved 300 units priced at up to $160,000 each, the court heard, which the pair calculated equalled a total sale of $48 million.</p> <p>Hawatt said he expected to receive up to two per cent of the proceeds for selling the units on behalf of property developer Charbel Demian.</p> <p>"That's alright. That's better than nothing," Maguire said in the call.</p> <p>"It's a quick f***ing sale. My client is mega big and has got mega money."</p> <p>Hawatt then suggested the commission might be as high as three per cent, an amount Maguire urged him to pursue.</p> <p>"One-point-five per cent isn't enough divided by two, if you know what I'm talking about," Maguire said.</p> <p>In another call between the men on the same day, Maguire said to Hawatt: "This will be very worthwhile for us but he's got to do three per cent."</p> <p>Prosecutors allege these statements were evidence Maguire was expecting to be paid and his later denials to ICAC were misleading enough to have a material impact on its investigation.</p> <p>"The evidence demonstrates that Mr Maguire believed that he and Mr Hawatt would share a commission if they identified property that could be purchased by Country Garden," prosecutor Phil Hogan told the court.</p> <p>The call was recorded by ICAC under Operation Dasha, which probed allegations of corruption at the local council and whether then-councillors dishonestly exercised their official functions over planning proposals and applications.</p> <p>On Monday, the court was also played Maguire's evidence to ICAC in which he denied entering into any business arrangements with Hawatt and described only having discussions of a "general nature" about property.</p> <p>After being played a recording of the phone calls between him and Hawatt, Maguire said he couldn't recall exactly but it appeared he was expecting to receive some sort of payment in the deal.</p> <p>"It appears that I am talking about a dividend," he told the inquiry at the time.</p> <p>"A dividend to be shared by two. You'd have to assume at that, an interested party, an interested person. I suspect it was me."</p> <p>Maguire resigned from NSW parliament in 2018 after a separate ICAC investigation, which also led to his secret romantic relationship with Ms Berejiklian coming to light.</p> <p>She also stood down from her role and was later found by ICAC to have breached public trust in failing to disclose the relationship.</p> <p>Hawatt and Demian are also facing allegations of misleading ICAC and remain before the courts having both pleaded not guilty.</p> <p>The hearing continues.</p> </body>