A former senior public servant has told an anti-corruption hearing he would have seen a "red flag" over a $5.5 million grant for Wagga if he had known about former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian's relationship with Daryl Maguire.
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The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) on Tuesday continued its investigation into former NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian and millions of dollars in grants for Wagga.
ICAC also revealed previously secret testimony in which one of Ms Berejiklian's former staff members claimed Mr Maguire would speak to him in "abrupt" terms and demand progress on the proposed centre.
Documents released by ICAC showed Mr Maguire had written to ministers since 2012 in a campaign to secure grants for the Australian Clay target Association in Wagga.
Ms Berejiklian has denied all wrongdoing and stated she has "always acted with the highest level of integrity".
Emails from 2016 released by ICAC showed Treasury staff discussing Ms Berejiklian's "inclination" to support the clay target grant.
The Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC) is investigating allegations that Ms Berejiklian had a conflict of interest through involvement in $35.5 million in grants for Wagga between 2016 and 2018, a time period when she was in a close personal relationship with Mr Maguire, the former Member for Wagga.
ICAC has said that The Range function centre and the Riverina Conservatorium of music are not themselves under investigation.
Ms Berejiklian has denied all wrongdoing and stated she has "always acted with the highest level of integrity".
ICAC used most of Tuesday to examine issues raised on Monday around awarding a major grant to build a clay target function centre in Wagga.
NSW Office of Sport director Michael Toohey told ICAC on Monday that the process for awarding the grant was "extremely unusual" as it was highly rushed and based on an inadequate business case.
Mr Toohey's boss at the time, former Office of Sport executive director Paul Doorn, appeared as a witness before ICAC Tuesday
ICAC exhibits show that Mr Doorn emailed Mr Toohey on November 15, 2016 to state "fancy a challenge? [Minister for Sport's office] has requested a draft [expenditure review committee] submission today!"
Mr Doorn attached the Australian Clay Target Association (ACTA) business case for a "new club house and site upgrade".
Counsel assisting ICAC, Scott Robertson, asked Mr Doorn why the NSW government had given the ACTA $40,000 earlier that year to develop that business case when the Office of Sport has designated it a "low priority" project.
"It must have been in discussions with the minister's office," Mr Doorn replied, referring to then Minister for Sport Stuart Ayres.
Mr Doorn told ICAC that, as best he could recall, he first became aware of the proposal to build the new clay target centre in 2016.
Mr Doorn then agreed he must have known about the proposal back in 2012 after being shown documents approved by him that referenced Mr Maguire contacting then Minister for Sport Graham Annesley to request funding for the project.
The Australian Clay Target Association was seeking substantially less money in 2012 with a view to securing $1.2 million to upgrade its target range "to meet international standards" rather than build a new complex.
ICAC heard from Mr Doorn that the Wagga clay target centre was effectively given two chances for funding within a matter of days in October 2016 with a submission heading to the expenditure review committee and the centre being listed as a new policy proposal for consideration in the next year's budget.
Mr Doorn said he never received an explanation as to why there was such urgency around getting funding for the Wagga centre.
"At least as you understood it, the proposal had at least some political support?" Mr Robertson asked.
Mr Doorn responded that "we didn't talk politics in our sort of meetings with the minister, but it had some, some level of support, yes".
ICAC on Tuesday released copies of emails from the NSW Treasury, including an email from its assistant director a week before the Expenditure Review Committee approved the Wagga clay target proposal on December 14, 2016.
The director requested a copy of the Wagga clay target centre's business case as "the Treasurer has requested this be brought forward and had indicated an inclination to support the proposal".
The NSW Treasurer at the time was Ms Berejiklian, who had been in a secret relationship with Mr Maguire since at least March 2015.
Mr Doorn agreed with Mr Robertson's suggestion that the urgency over the Wagga grant could have come from concerns over the rise of the Shooters, Fishers and Farmers Party in NSW.
"The amount of money that goes into shooting is disproportionate to the number of people who take part in shooting," Mr Doorn said.
ICAC on Tuesday lifted a suppression order on a private hearing in April in which Mr Robertson questioned Ms Berejiklian's former adviser, Zach Bentley.
Mr Bentley told ICAC that Mr Maguire would have "abrupt" conversations with him about the clay target proposal and say things like "Get the effing thing sorted. You know, I really need this for my electorate".
Mr Bentley was asked if he ever considered the Wagga electorate to be at risk from another party following the Nationals' defeat in the November 2016 Orange byelection.
The Shooters won the byelection amid a regional backlash over a proposed greyhound racing ban.
Mr Bentley told ICAC in April he "politely" rejected that analysis.
"That [Wagga] electorate is a large regional centre so the politics of say communities such as Orange and whatnot, those greyhounds and whatnot, those issues wouldn't really be at play in Wagga," he said.
Mr Bentley said Mr Maguire "was relatively safe in his margins" in 2016 and 2017.
Mr Doorn was asked at ICAC on Tuesday when he learned that Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire had been in a relationship and replied that he found out via media reports last year.
"If you had known [in 2016], what different steps would you have taken?" Mr Robertson asked.
"If that was a known factor, the first thing would be doing is notifying your secretary, the head of your government agency, and ultimately that would go to organisations like ICAC ... [a red flag] would be a good way to describe it," Mr Doorn said.
Sophie Callan, acting for Ms Berejiklian at ICAC, cross-examined Mr Doorn and asked if he worked with the Minister for Sport's office to identify a list of projects to fund with leftover budgets, including the Wagga proposal.
Mr Doorn said that was a fair statement and also agreed that "political factors" were not communicated to him by the minister.
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