Former NSW premier Gladys Berejiklian has denied that she lied to her chief of staff about her relationship with disgraced MP Daryl Maguire, when she said it was over.
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The Independent Commission Against Corruption inquiry is investigating how Ms Berejiklian's secret relationship with the disgraced former Wagga Wagga MP may have affected the way she dealt with projects he was pursuing.
Sarah Cruickshank gave evidence to the state's corruption watchdog last week that her former boss told her in July 2018 - a day after Mr Maguire gave evidence to ICAC - the relationship was historical and had ended.
"I don't think it is uncommon for two people to have a different recollection of a conversation that occurred three-and-a-half years ago," Ms Berejiklian said in her evidence on Monday.
In her second day in the witness box, the former premier said that Ms Cruickshank advised her to "stop having anything more to do with" Mr Maguire.
"I did not take that advice obviously," she said.
Ms Berejiklian gave evidence last year that the relationship continued until 2020.
She was asked by counsel assisting the commission Scott Robertson about a tapped phone call in July 2018 in which Mr Maguire told her he had been summonsed to appear as a witness at the ICAC.
Ms Berejiklian agreed it was in "black and white" in the transcript that Mr Maguire had made representations to property developers but she didn't know all the people he mentioned.
"Whether or not I listened or cared is another matter," Ms Berejiklian said on Monday.
"I did not assume any wrongdoing."
In the tapped phone call, Mr Maguire told her he had introduced a former councillor to Chinese property development company Country Garden.
He maintained he had never "accepted a dollar" nor "done a deal" and Ms Berejiklian told him to "be honest and listen to your lawyer".
Ms Berejiklian said she trusted Mr Maguire even after he was summonsed.
"I had no reason to disbelieve him when I pressed him a number of times and he said he'd done nothing wrong," she said.
"I trusted him."
NSW ministers are required under the ICAC Act to report suspicions of corrupt conduct to the commission.
Ms Berejiklian said she didn't think there was anything she needed to report.
The hearing was shown a series of text messages between her and Mr Maguire in July 2018 in which he told her to get a second phone and asked her to download instant messaging service WeChat.
"They can read texts but not the little green man, it leaves no trace," he wrote in a message.
Ms Berejiklian said she didn't know if "they" referred to the corruption watchdog or whether the "little green man" referred to the app's icon.
She was asked again about an intercepted phone call in which she can be heard saying she got "$170 million in five minutes" for a hospital in Mr Maguire's electorate but said that money had already been allocated.
"I am a stickler for making sure everything is done by the book," she said.
The call was one of several intercepted phone calls played to Ms Berejiklian during five hours of questioning on Friday.
She was asked about a phone call, played on Friday and again on Monday, in which Mr Maguire told her to "throw money at Wagga" and she said she would.
She said governments "threw money at seats in order to keep them" in a by-election.
When asked about the $20.5 million plan to build a recital hall in Wagga Wagga for the Riverina Conservatorium of Music, Ms Berejiklian said it was a "worthy project".
Australian Associated Press
