The NSW premier, Gladys Berejiklian, has begun dating a prominent barrister who represented her during an anti-corruption inquiry into her former lover, the disgraced ex-MP Daryl Maguire.
The premier’s sister, Mary, posted a photo to Instagram on Friday night of Berejiklian and Arthur Moses SC with the caption: “After work Friday feels with these two … Glad and her boo.”
A spokeswoman for the premier subsequently said: “They have recently begun spending private time together. The premier will not discuss her private life.”
Moses represented Berejiklian in 2020 when she fronted an Icac hearing examining the conduct of Maguire. The premier revealed at the inquiry she had been in a “close personal relationship” with Maguire.
Moses is no longer the premier’s lawyer, her office said on Friday.
Berejikian’s private life was cast into the spotlight during the Icac hearings where Maguire was being investigated over allegedly corrupt property deals.
Berejiklian was not accused of any wrongdoing but admitted the secret relationship with Maguire continued even after she was forced to sack him in 2018 following Icac revelations.
As she faced calls from the NSW Labor opposition to resign, Berejiklian acknowledged she had “stuffed up” in her private life, but denied any knowledge of Maguire’s activities.
She told a press conference it was not easy for her to discuss her private life and described the situation as a “personal nightmare”.
“I’m human, and I stuffed up in my personal life,” she said at the time. “For someone who’s extremely private and extremely cautious and very conservative in the way she leads her life, it’s been very difficult to have to have that out on full display.”
She later told the Daily Telegraph she had “loved” Maguire but would never speak to him again.
“I can formally say to people I’ve given up on love,” she said. “I’m just going to say I have always put my job first, rightly or wrongly, and that will now continue indefinitely.”
Moses, one of Australia’s most high profile silks, is a former president of the NSW Bar Association and also served as president of the Law Council of Australia in 2019.
He is representing the Victoria Cross recipient Ben Roberts-Smith in the ex-soldier’s high-profile defamation trial against Nine newspapers.
Moses is also a squadron leader in the Royal Australian Air Force specialist reserve.
