A senior commonwealth official who was sacked by Barnaby Joyce in 2015 has been promoted to become the second most powerful bureaucrat in New South Wales.
Paul Grimes is the new state treasury secretary, continuing the revival of his public service career that included stints as a deputy secretary under then federal treasurer Peter Costello and as a senior adviser to Labor prime minister Kevin Rudd during the global financial crisis.
Grimes, however, later had a public falling out in 2015 when Joyce was agriculture minister. Joyce sacked Grimes, his agriculture secretary, saying at the time that there was “no realistic prospect” he could have a “relationship of strong mutual confidence”.
Joyce had insisted a correction to the Hansard parliamentary record of an incorrect answer he gave regarding drought support loans had been made by his staff, without his knowledge, and that he had asked for the changes to be reversed when he became aware they had been made. Grimes, though, implied there was a different version of events, even requesting an extraordinary Senate committee hearing.
After his exit from Canberra, Grimes took up senior positions, including with the Victorian government. Almost two years ago, he was handpicked by Matt Kean, then NSW energy and environment minister, to coordinate his department.
Now the NSW treasurer, Kean announced on Tuesday that Grimes would be the new treasury secretary – starting on Saturday – and praised his attributes as an older style official unafraid to give frank advice.
“What a man of integrity he is,” Kean told Guardian Australia. “What a coup this is for NSW.”
Grimes, an economist, will succeed two bankers in the top Treasury role, his appointment coming just as the government puts the final touches on a support package to aid the state’s economic recovery from Omicron.
NSW accounts for about one-third of the national economy and a recent CBA State of the States report has its performance lagging all but the ACT’s.
Kean said Grimes had worked to develop the state’s energy roadmap aimed at attracting billions of dollars of investment. The plan aims to accelerate the decarbonisation of the economy and provide lower-cost electricity to households and businesses alike.
The new treasury secretary will oversee the next state budget, due by mid-year, which will be the last before elections in March 2023, Kean said. So far, there is little sign of additional economic support from the commonwealth.
Grimes’s appointment follows an earlier-than-expected exit by current treasury secretary Mike Pratt, who had indicated he planned to leave by March.
Pratt’s tenure had lately been clouded by a dispute between Treasury and the audit office, with the auditor general, Margaret Crawford, initially refusing to sign off on the state’s accounts over the controversial assessment of rail assets.
That dispute ended earlier this month although the cost in terms of future accounting changes may tally as much as $4.1bn.
The NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, who was treasurer when the rail assets saga began, praised Pratt for his almost decade-long service, including four and a half years as treasury secretary.
Pratt played “a vital and leading role in guiding the economy through the greatest economic challenge that NSW has faced since the Great Depression – the Covid-19 pandemic – saving tens of thousands of jobs and businesses,” the premier said.
“Mr Pratt’s sound fiscal management and expert advice allowed the NSW government to help people when they needed it most during drought, bushfires, floods and the pandemic, as well ensuring the state will continue to deliver for future generations.”
Barnaby Joyce, now deputy prime minister, was approached for comment.
