Gladys Berejiklian

Gladys Berejiklian is an Australian politician who served as the 45th Premier of New South Wales and the leader of the New South Wales Liberal Party from 2017 to 2021.

Mining magnate and politician Clive Palmer alleged during a September 15, 2021 press conference that Berejiklian was under the influence of pharmaceutical lobbyists. “She is being directed by a lobbyist in Sydney who is being paid by AstraZeneca and by Pfizer tens of millions of dollars to get these policies through to make sure the vaccine is pushed.”¹⁾

Palmer further claimed that the same lobbyist controls the Australian Liberal Party in Sydney and is using the threat of the Independent Commission Against Corruption’s (ICAC) inquiries into Berejiklian to pull her strings and push the vaccines.²⁾

Berejiklian announced her resignation from government on October 1st, 2021 after ICAC said it was investigating whether she was involved in conduct between 2012 and 2018 that “constituted or involved a breach of public trust”.^{3) 4)} Initial reporting claimed the conduct in question was her “close personal relationship” with “disgraced politician” Daryl Maguire, which Berejiklian admitted had lasted from 2015 until August 2020.[9]

Maguire had been a fellow Liberal MP until a previous inquiry had heard that he had sought inappropriate payments, leading to his resignation in 2018.[10] As a result, a vote of no-confidence was taken against Berejiklian in parliament. She survived the vote in the lower house with 47–38, and in the upper house with 21–20, after a deciding vote from the Liberal president.[11]