MAGUIRE: I – I –
BEREJIKLIAN: Alright.
MAGUIRE: – can't believe that that was the top of my list and they ignored me.
BEREJIKLIAN: Well luckily you've got –
… (Italics and emphasis in original.)
121 These exchanges are capable of supporting findings both as to the extent to and manner in which Mr Maguire pressed the applicant to exercise her public functions to support his causes, as well as the applicant's preparedness to respond by doing so.
122 Another instance of the applicant's responding to Mr Maguire's urgings involved the RCM proposal as it stood in November 2017. The applicant accepted that at that time she was considering "sacking" a Mr Barnes, who was at that time deputy secretary of Regional NSW within the Department of Premier and Cabinet ([12.47]). In that context, the following recorded telephone conversation occurred ([12.46]):
MAGUIRE: Well I had ahh what's his name Gary Barnes come and see me today they rang me.
BEREJIKLIAN: I can't stand that guy.
MAGUIRE: Hmm.
BEREJIKLIAN: His head will be gone soon.
MAGUIRE: Gary Barnes?
BEREJIKLIAN: Hmm.
MAGUIRE: Not until he fixes my conservatorium.
BEREJIKLIAN: Yeah okay.
MAGUIRE: He's the only one that's come to do it.
BEREJIKLIAN: Alright good tell him to fix it and then after he fixes it, I'm sacking him.
123 As is recorded at [12.47], the applicant agreed that "it was possible that one of the reasons that she decided not to sack [Mr Barnes] immediately was the fact that Mr Maguire wanted him to 'fix' his conservatorium".
124 A further example of the interactions between Mr Maguire and the applicant also concerned the RCM proposal. The following recorded telephone conversation occurred on 1 May 2018, at a time after the ERC decisions concerning Stage 1 had already been made (on 12 and 24 April 2018), though before the decision concerning Stage 2 made on or shortly before 24 August 2018 ([12.95]):
BEREJIKLIAN: We ticked off your conservatorium the other day so that's a done deal now.
MAGUIRE: Yeah, but that's only–
BEREJIKLIAN: The money.
MAGUIRE: – that's – that's the building and ten million, not the rest of it. Not the next stage-
BEREJIKLIAN: Oh my God. Heaven help us seriously.
MAGUIRE: But it's two stages.
BEREJIKLIAN: Yes I know. Anyway.
MAGUIRE: So anyway, that–that's alright they'll all be happy with that –
