A NSW parliamentary inquiry has found the appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro to a lucrative New York trade job had all the “trademarks of a jobs for the boys” position.
A scathing interim report from the inquiry has been handed down, also finding that Barilaro’s proposal to convert Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner roles into ministerial appointments was brought on without a reasonable basis and pursued with “unnecessary haste”.
The report also said former Trade Minister Stuart Ayres’ discussions with Barilaro were inappropriate and showed poor judgment, and that Ayres was not at arm’s length during the recruitment process. He also misled the public when answering questions about it, the report says.
“The appointment of Mr Barilaro as STIC to the Americas has all the trademarks of a ‘job for the boys’ position,” inquiry Chair Cate Faehrmann wrote in the foreword.
“Despite assurances from senior public servants and ministers that the appointment process was conducted by the public service under a merit based process, it is clear that the process was flawed and that the Executive was not at arm’s length from the process.”
The report details a lack of transparency and integrity in the way the recruitment process for the New York trade job was conducted, with the inquiry uncovering how “a preferred candidate was selected and offered the STIC to the Americas position to only then be discarded in the guise of a nonsensical change of Government policy”.
“The inquiry also revealed the many ‘intersection points’ between a senior public servant and the then Minister for Trade Mr Stuart Ayres MP which were all highly inappropriate and unacceptable,” Faehrmann wrote.
Barilaro was appointed to the $500,000 New York trade role in early 2021, despite senior public servant Jenny West already receiving an offer for the role. When her offer was rescinded, she was told the job would instead be a “present for someone”.
A dissenting statement was included in the interim report from Nationals MLC Wes Fang and Liberal MLCs Scott Farlow and Peter Poulous, stating the findings were an attempt to “score political points” and should be rejected.
The interim report comes one week after an investigation from the Auditor-General found the office of Barilaro diverted bushire relief funding away from Labor-held electorates in 2020.