How Gladys Berejiklian could be the THIRD NSW premier to fall victim to anti-corruption probes - as she's caught on tape with disgraced former MP lover

Gladys Berejiklian could become the third Liberal premier in New South Wales to be brought down by the anti-corruption body her side of politics created three decades ago.

Nick Greiner became its first victim in June 1992 - just four years after he established the Independent Commission Against Corruption in a bid to uncover Labor scandals during Neville Wran's decade in power.

While the Supreme Court later cleared him of scandalously offering a public service job to former education minister Terry Metherell, the damage was done and the late John Fahey replaced him as premier.

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Gladys Berejiklian could become the third Liberal premier in New South Wales to be brought down by the anti-corruption her side of politics created. She is pictured in the Independent Commission Against Corruption witness box on Monday

Mr Metherell had quit the Liberal Party and was an influential independent crossbencher who was offered a job in the Department of Environment in a bid to entice him to quit Parliament, so the government could win back his seat of Davidson on Sydney's North Shore.

NSW Liberal premiers ICAC has brought down

NICK GREINER: The Independent Commission Against Corruption was established by the Greiner Government in 1988 only for the Terry Metherell affair to force his resignation in June 1992

Mr Metherell, a former Liberal education minister, was now an independent in a hung parliament and he was offered a job running the new Environment Protection Agency so the government could win back his Sydney North Shore seat of Davidson

BARRY O'FARRELL: A month after winning a landslide election victory, Mr O'Farrell in April 2011 was gifted a $3,000 bottle of Grange Hermitage which he didn't declare

He resigned after this was revealed at an ICAC hearing in April 2014

Little more than two decades later, in April 2014, Barry O'Farrell resigned over an undeclared $3,000 bottle of Grange Hermitage, bottled in the year of his birth - 1959.

He had received the gift in April 2011 - a month after he won a landslide election victory that ended 16 years of Labor rule, following a series of scandals in Kristina Keneally's short-lived government.

Mr Barry O'Farrell's father-in-law Bruce Cowan, a former state and federal National Party MP, also died that month.

Former Australian Water Holdings chief executive Nick Di Girolamo, whose company had been a Liberal Party donor, had given Mr O'Farrell that infamous bottle of wine.

Now Ms Berejiklian could be next after ICAC played recordings of her telephone conversations with disgraced former country Liberal MP Daryl Maguire.

The NSW Premier made the stunning admission about her relationship with a former political colleague while giving evidence at the ICAC inquiry into corruption allegations against Mr Maguire on Monday.

Ms Berejiklian said she had a 'personal attachment' to Mr Maguire after working together for more than 15 years. She said their relationship began in 2015.

They last spoke on September 13 - less than a month ago - and Ms Berejiklian ceased communication only after agreeing to attend the ICAC inquiry.

'I would like to state at the outset Mr Maguire was a colleague of 15 years, he was someone that I trusted,' she said.

'That developed into a close personal relationship.'

Mr Maguire - the Liberal member for Wagga Wagga - was forced to quit the Berejiklian government in 2018 after a separate ICAC inquiry heard evidence he sought payments to help broker deals for property developers.

Now Ms Berejiklian could be next after ICAC played recordings of her telephone conversation with disgraced former country MP Daryl Maguire

An intercepted phone call between Ms Berejiklian and Mr Maguire was played to the commission, revealing their close relationship.

The private conversation was about Mr Maguire's first trip to China.

Ms Berejiklian can be heard saying former chief of staff Sarah Cruickshank had concerns about his travel.

'Alright babe, what do you think?' Mr Maguire says.

'I just got home, did Sarah ring you from my office?' Ms Berejiklian replied.

'No why?' he replied.

'She sent me a text, when she has to ring a member of parliament she lets me know.'

Nick Greiner became its first victim in 1992 - just four years after he established the Independent Commission Against Corruption in a bid to uncover Labor scandals during Neville Wran's decade in power. He is pictured in 2018

'They seem to think it's in your electorate. I didn't say anything, It's none of my business, I'm just letting you know.'

Mr Maguire went on to use 'offensive language' to explain why he was going to China.

'I will ... these bureaucrats don't care... they're shaking hands, they are sucking people's d***s and they are turning up to everything and they do nothing.'

In September 2018, the Liberal Party lost the previously safe southern NSW seat of Wagga Wagga, with a 28 per cent swing against it, after Mr Maguire was forced to quit Parliament, sparking a by-election just six months before the state election.

The Liberal Party had held the seat uninterrupted since 1957.

Little more than two decades later, in 2014, Barry O'Farrell resigned over an undeclared $3,000 bottle of Grange Hermitage, bottled in the year of his birth - 1959

Nonetheless, Ms Berejiklian won the March 2019 state election, securing the Coalition a third consecutive term in NSW - a feat last achieved in 1971 on her side of politics.

Mr Greiner's successor Mr Fahey narrowly lost the 1995 election to Labor's Bob Carr, but Mr O'Farrell's Liberal replacement Mike Baird comfortably won the 2015 state election.

Mr Baird is now the only living former NSW Liberal premier untainted by ICAC. 

ICAC's victims didn't fade from public life with Mr O'Farrell in May appointed as Australia's High Commissioner to India.

A month later, in June, Mr Greiner was appointed as Australia's consul-general in New York, a post he took up in August.

Bob Carr in 1988 had threatened to resign as Labor leader after sections of his party, including Right-faction powerbroker Graham Richardson, opposed ICAC on the grounds it would be a witch hunt body that would be going after former Labor ministers. Pictured are new Liberal and National ministers being sworn in as part of a cabinet reshuffle by Nick Greiner in 1990

This followed a stint as the Liberal Party's NSW president and a post-politics career as a company director including a role as chairman of tobacco company WD & Ho Wills.

Mr Carr in 1988 had threatened to resign as Labor leader after sections of his party, including Right-faction powerbroker Graham Richardson, opposed ICAC on the grounds it would be a witch hunt body that would be going after former Labor ministers. 

His former chief-of-staff Bruce Hawker, a founder of the Hawker Britton government relations firm, said Mr Carr had made the right decision, despite misgivings from his side of politics at the time.

'It was intended to get the Labor Party and the first real victim to be caught by it was Nick Greiner himself,' he told Daily Mail Australia. 

'A lot of politicians have gone down as a result of ICAC but I think that shows it works, in a way.'

While ICAC hasn't yet brought down any NSW Labor premiers, its evidence led to the jailing of former Carr Government ministers Eddie Obeid and Ian Macdonald, in 2016 and 2017. 

Mr Hawker said the latest revelations about Ms Berejiklian showed all MPs had to be on guard at all times.

'It just goes to show that when you live and breath politics, you're always going to have to make sure that everything you say and do is above reproach, otherwise you are going to get caught up in corruption inquiries at some stage,' he said.

'It's far too early to say what's going to happen with Gladys Berejiklian.'