Ex-Liberal MP Daryl Maguire quit politics in 2018 after he was accused of attempting to broker property deals on behalf of a Chinese developer.
Until yesterday, his five-year relationship with NSW Premier Gladys Berejiklian -- which began in 2015 and ended just a month ago -- had remained largely a secret.
Fronting a state ICAC inquiry, Ms Berejiklian admitted to having a “close personal relationship” with Mr Maguire but denied being privy to his business deals.
On Tuesday morning, former Opposition Leader Bill Shorten said Ms Berejiklian had been “punching below her weight”.
“She’s a smart lady who I think has been punching below her weight with perhaps a much more average guy. I have sympathy for Gladys at the human level,” Mr Shorten said on Nine’s Today Show.
In a Sydney Morning Herald op-ed, Jenna Price echoed this sentiment.
Gladys Berejiklian and Daryl Maguire. Source: AAP
“I'm also profoundly disappointed in Maguire who is not fit to tie Berejiklian's shoelaces,” Price wrote.
“It can't be easy being a single woman in such a powerful position and there will be shysters and hucksters hanging around, desperate to be in on the action,” she continued.
“How dare he embroil her in this mess.”
While The Australian’s Sharri Markson mused “How can she have allowed a third-rate country MP to humiliate her like this?”
But on Twitter, the opinion was divided.
Some lamented the tarnishing of the Premier’s image by a man. Others accused Ms Berejiklian of putting Mr Maguire -- who she called her “numero uno” in a text message -- ahead of the people of NSW.
“She knew a member of her government was hatching plans to enrich himself with side deals with developers and trading on access to her. She did nothing,” said Greens MP David Shoebridge.
ABC Journalist Wendy Harmer tweeted “I do not buy the defence of many women here: ‘I was let down by a man’. It undermines the strength of women and their ability to govern. This is about corruption, not a bad relationship.”
While NSW Labor Leader Jodi McKay wrote: “When Maguire resigned in July 2018, she should have disclosed her relationship & told ICAC what she knew. She did not.”
Julia Gillard’s treatment by the press
Some have claimed former prime minister Julia Gillard received a far less sympathetic response from Australian media over her former relationship with ex-union official Bruce Wilson.
Mr Wilson was accused of being involved in the creation of a "slush fund" in the 1990s and embezzling money. The allegations were never proven.
Ms Gillard, who ended the relationship in 1995, said in 2012 she didn’t report fraud carried out by her then-boyfriend because she didn’t know about it.
As reported by Crikey, The Australian was forced to retract a story in 2012 that claimed Ms Gillard set up a trust fund for Wilson, admitting in a correction: “this is wrong”.
The paper spiked another story in 2011, which claimed Ms Gillard had “shared a home” with Wilson in Fitzroy after acknowledging “the assertions are untrue”.
While political cartoonist Larry Pickering was heavily criticised over several cartoons he illustrated depicting Ms Gillard, including one of her naked and wearing a dildo.
In another cartoon, she was depicted standing beside Mr Wilson and a stack of cash as he told her: “We’ll be fine Jules. As long as you don’t get any crazy ideas about becoming P.M.”
Ms Gillard dubbed reporting linking her to the allegations about Mr Wilson a “sexist smear campaign”.
'This matter had got to the stage where we were starting to see recycled false and defamatory allegations which I had dealt with in my past,'' said Ms Gillard in 2012.
''And every time I have dealt with them, retractions have been put on the websites and second editions have been pulled of newspapers because they are defamatory allegations and they are wrong.”
One Twitter user claimed “Julia Gillard was hounded for years about her personal relationship, dragged through the mud. Nothing was off-limits to the media. Now the same media tells us Gladys Berejiklian’s private life off-limits.”
While another wrote: “The media showing its true spots, in unison saying 'how good' is Gladys, words they never used for Emma Husar back in 2018. Or Julia Gillard. Selective memories.”
