The head of Investment New South Wales has announced that she will stand aside from the role amid a months-long saga over the appointment of former deputy premier John Barilaro to a lucrative New York trade job.
Amy Brown said she will instead focus on her other role, as the secretary of the Department of Enterprise, Investment and Trade, after she departs as chief executive of Investment NSW.
This comes after an independent report into the trade saga found Barilaro’s appointment was not “fully in keeping” with the code of ethics governing public servants in the state.
Brown had been due to appear before a budget estimates hearing next week, but an internal memo, first reported by the Australian Financial Review and confirmed by the Guardian, revealed she had quit the role citing the trade saga.
“The events of the past eight weeks, including a review commissioned by the Department of Premier and Cabinet and a NSW Legislative Council inquiry into the recruitment process for the senior trade and investment commissioner to the Americas have reinforced the need for me to focus my full attention on my role as secretary,” she wrote.
“Given that, I have made the decision that I can best serve the needs of our state by separating my dual roles as chief executive officer of Investment NSW and secretary of enterprise, investment and trade.”
The independent report, handed down last week, had previously led to the resignation of the former deputy Liberal party leader and trade minister, Stuart Ayres, after it raised concerns about a series of “interactions” he had with Brown leading up to the appointment.
While the Head report focused on the Barilaro appointment, the saga has widened amid questions over the appointment of the former NSW Business Chamber chief Stephen Cartwright as the state’s senior trade commissioner in London.
Brown – who was not involved in hiring Cartwright, but who was made responsible for negotiating his contract – made a series of revelations about his appointment in her appearance before a parliamentary inquiry probing the trade jobs.
The Head report had raised questions about Brown’s future after the premier, Dominic Perrottet, refused to guarantee her position after its release, instead saying it would be left to the secretary of the department and premier and cabinet, Michael Coutts-Trotter.
Brown has previously expressed concern about the handling of the trade positions to a parliamentary inquiry probing the saga, saying she was “nervous” about Barilaro’s appointment and contradicting Ayres’s insistence the appointment was done “at arm’s length” from ministers.
Ayres has denied any wrongdoing and Barilaro has said that he “always maintained that I followed the process”.
In a statement, Investment NSW said Brown had decided to “separate” the role from her other position as secretary of the department.
“At the time of its creation, the structure of the department ... included Amy Brown in the combined role of department secretary and CEO of Investment NSW,” a spokesperson said.
“Amy Brown, as secretary, made the decision to separate the roles on 11 August 2022. These roles have been separated to allow the secretary to focus on a cluster leadership role and the Investment NSW CEO to focus on the core activities of investment attraction.
“Investment NSW can confirm that Amy Brown has not resigned from her role as CEO, nor is it a requirement under the GSE Act, but rather due to the scale and significant nature of the work in both positions, the role of Investment CEO has been separated out from the secretary role description, title and accountabilities.”
Brown was appointed Investment NSW’s inaugural chief executive when the agency began last year, before being appointed secretary of the new department of trade in January.
The department oversees a number of different agencies – including Create NSW, Hospitality NSW and Racing NSW – all of which have their own CEOs reporting to Brown as secretary.
Investment NSW’s executive director of commercial transactions, Katie Knight, will become its interim chief executive.
