Do we like them?

Do we like Gladys Berejiklian?

Our score: 5 out of 10. A watchdog's upheld finding of serious corrupt conduct sits against nothing harmful of her own that we could find, with too little checked to say more.

Gladys Berejiklian rose through the NSW Liberals to become treasurer and then premier. For years she was the steady face of state government. Her career is now bound up with her relationship with fellow Liberal MP Daryl Maguire, and that is what most coverage of her turns on.

The story goes back to 2014, when the pair began a relationship that the corruption watchdog ICAC later found dated from then. She kept it private until late 2020, when it came out at an inquiry into Maguire's business interests. She said she was “a very private person”. In October 2021 ICAC announced an investigation into her, and she resigned as premier shortly after.

In June 2023 ICAC found that she engaged in “serious corrupt conduct” and breached public trust. The finding centred on her failure to disclose her suspicion that Maguire might be involved in conduct of concern, and ICAC did not recommend prosecuting her. She has consistently denied that the relationship affected her decisions, and she said at all times she worked in the public interest. She challenged the findings in court, and the NSW Court of Appeal rejected that challenge in July 2024.

On the harm check, we have to be straight about a gap. Nothing harmful in her own words or acts turned up in the reporting we could open, but we couldn't verify her record on LGBTQ+ rights, women or climate. So it's a close call rather than a pass, and the company she keeps after politics didn't come up either way.

Nothing new on her lately that we could confirm. As for the good stuff, we couldn't verify charity or kind acts from the pages we read, and we're not going to invent a highlight reel. Her admirers point to her crisis management as premier, but we haven't sourced that here.

So where does that leave us? A finding of serious corrupt conduct that survived a court challenge is a real stain, even though no one charged her and she disputes it. Set that against a lack of anything nasty in her own words, and you land in the middle. Would we cheer her on? Not loudly, and not with the full picture in hand.