A senior public servant who reported directly to John Barilaro before his resignation from parliament was on the interview panel who gave the former deputy New South Wales premier a $500,000-a-year trade commissioner job, but the agency involved says there was no conflict of interest.
Amy Brown, the chief executive of Investment NSW, was one of four bureaucrats who interviewed Barilaro for the New York-based trade commissioner job.
Brown was joined on the panel by the state’s public service commissioner, the former managing director of investment and trade at Investment NSW and an external panel member.
Brown was appointed as Investment NSW’s inaugural chief executive when the agency formed in March last year.
Barilaro, then the deputy premier, was one of three ministers she reported to in the role, along with the former premier Gladys Berejiklian and the current deputy Liberal leader, Stuart Ayres.
After Barilaro announced the creation of six trade commissioner roles based in the US, UK, Tokyo, Shanghai, Mumbai and Singapore in November 2020, Brown was also closely involved in the hiring process.
Internal documents released through parliament show Brown sat on the initial interview panels for the US-based position and discussed the candidates with the former Treasury secretary Mike Pratt.
It was Barilaro, then the trade and investment minister as well as deputy premier, who announced that the Tokyo and UK positions had been filled in July and October last year.
But, in response to questions from Guardian Australia about whether Brown was required to declare a conflict of interest over Barilaro’s appointment, a spokesperson for Investment NSW said: “No conflict of interest precluded the Investment CEO from making this appointment.”
The government began its search for a candidate to be the New York-based trade commissioner in April last year, and four candidates were interviewed in July.
One of them, a senior public servant, Jenny West, was informed by Berejiklian in August that she had won the job but the offer was later rescinded. The job was then readvertised in December, including via an $8,250 ad in the Australian Financial Review.
Asked why the job had not been given to West, the spokesperson for Investment NSW said only that Barilaro had been “shortlisted for interview” by NGS Global, the recruitment firm hired to conduct the search for candidates.
Barilaro was “among a select group of candidates” who were then interviewed by the panel for the position.
“At the completion of the recruitment process including interviews, due diligence, reference and background checks, Mr Barilaro was ranked highest and recommended for the role,” the spokesperson said.
The decision to offer the job to Barilaro was not taken to cabinet, a move that has infuriated senior ministers. Guardian Australia understands that other trade commissioner roles were signed off on by cabinet.
Investment NSW said the decision to hire the former deputy premier had been made by the public service.
“These roles are not statutory roles, they are public service roles established under the Government Sector Employment Act and regulations and they are employed by Investment NSW,” the spokesperson said.
Brown was approached for comment.
The latest revelation came as the Labor opposition managed to pass a motion on Wednesday calling for the government to delay Barilaro’s appointment until an urgent upper house inquiry reports its findings.
Terms of reference for the upper house inquiry, which is expected to begin in a matter of weeks, have yet to be published, but it will focus on the circumstances, process and probity of the appointment.
The motion passed 20 votes to 18 despite opposition from the government and One Nation. While it is not binding, Labor’s upper house leader Penny Sharpe said there were questions that needed to be answered before the former deputy premier moved.
“This has been one of the murkiest appointments that we have seen in this 12-year-old government,” she said.
The education minister, Sarah Mitchell, said it was “inappropriate” to block the move.
“By calling on the government to delay his appointment pending an inquiry, the motion is asking the government to interfere in the appointment and employment of a public servant,” she said in parliament.
“This is highly inappropriate. It is not in place of elected officials to be interfering in the engagement or employment of public servants and to call on the government to do so be highly unconventional.”
The appointment’s timing has created a significant headache for the NSW government as it seeks to sell its big-spending pre-election budget to voters before next year’s state poll.
On Wednesday the NSW premier, Dominic Perrottet, said “public service employment decisions go through the public service”, adding that he thought Barilaro would “do a great job” in the role.
He said he had been advised that there were “two processes” in filling the trade commissioner role but had asked for more information about the appointment.
“The first process did not reach an outcome where the public service determined that there was an appropriate candidate,” he said.
“And so a second process was commenced. I’ve also spoken to the minister this morning to get further information in relation to background and timeline in relation to those matters but the advice I’ve received.”
He said he wanted the government and public service to be transparent about the appointment.
“There would be, I would expect confidential information in relation to recruitment processes, but I think it’s important the government’s transparent, I think it’s important that the public service is transparent to instil confidence in relation to the decision-making that has occurred,” he said.
“The executive did not make the decision. It was a decision made by the public service following an independent recruitment process that recommended, based on their interviews, the former deputy premier to be appointed to this role.”
