The most senior New South Wales public servant has revealed he is considering firing the person responsible for appointing the former deputy premier, John Barilaro, to a lucrative New York trade job.
This came as the state premier, Dominic Perrottet, refused to rule out allowing his party’s former deputy Stuart Ayres to return to cabinet, just a month after Ayres resigned over the trade commissioner scandal that engulfed the government.
The secretary of the Department of Premier and Cabinet, Michael Coutts-Trotter, told a budget estimates hearing on Wednesday that he had formed the “preliminary view” that Amy Brown had “not satisfactorily performed” her role during the process that led to Barilaro’s appointment to the job.
It was “a question of poor performance and not misconduct”, he told the hearing.
His view was based on the findings of a report by former public service commissioner, Graeme Head, which found Brown had not acted “fully in keeping” with the code of ethics governing NSW public servants during the process of hiring Barilaro.
Coutts-Trotter told the hearing that, after considering the report, he had told Brown on 18 August of his “preliminary view”.
The Head report said Brown had provided an “incomplete and hence misleading picture” of the first hiring process, which led to former public servant Jenny West being given the role, prior to Barilaro’s appointment.
His view was also based on Brown’s interactions with Ayres during the second recruitment round. This included arranging for another candidate to meet with him, discussing Barilaro’s appropriateness for the role, and failing to inform other selection panel members of Ayres involvement in forming a shortlist for the job.
Coutts-Trotter told the hearing that one of the options he was considering was “termination”.
“My preliminary view was and is that she had not satisfactorily performed the function of secretary,” he said.
“And I should state that it’s a preliminary view. I’ve not made a final view and the procedural fairness afforded to Ms Brown gives her an opportunity to make a submission to me in relation to my preliminary view to her personally, and I must and will convey her submission with an open mind,” he said.
Brown, who is currently on leave until 19 September, is entitled to make a submission responding to his preliminary view.
In her response to the Head report, Brown said any breach of her duty as a public servant was “unintentional and a function of what she describes as quite unusual circumstances”.
Perrottet refused to tell budget estimates on Wednesday whether he would return Ayres to cabinet if he was cleared of wrongdoing by a separate review.
Ayres, who holds the crucial marginal seat of Penrith in Sydney’s west, quit as deputy Liberal party leader and trade minister in August after the Head review found he had potentially breached the code during his “engagement” with Brown.
Ayres has denied any wrongdoing.
Perrottet has commissioned a second report, run by respected barrister Bruce McClintock SC, to determine if Ayres had breached the code. That report was handed to the government on Wednesday.
While Perrottet said he had yet to read the report, he refused to say whether Ayres would be returned to cabinet if the report clears him.
“The question involves a hypothetical,” Perrottet told the hearing.
“I haven’t seen or received the review from Mr McClintock … I’m going to read it, I’m going to reflect on it.”
