The New South Wales government is in damage control amid two scandals and revelations a second highly credentialed businesswoman was knocked off as the top candidate for a lucrative New York trade job, placing intense pressure on the state’s trade minister, Stuart Ayres.
As Ayres continue to deny wrongdoing and refused to stand aside despite mounting pressure on the government over the trade role saga, a trove of documents showed a second round of recruitment initially recommended the posting go to Kimberly Cole.
But that recommendation was later overturned in favour of the former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro.
The revelations come more than a month after the Guardian first revealed the posting was first offered to a different woman, the former senior public servant and businesswoman Jenny West, in August last year.
The trade posting has engulfed the government for more than a month, and comes as a separate scandal – the abrupt sacking of the small businesses minister, Eleni Petinos, on Sunday – left senior ministers despondent about the Coalition’s prospects at next year’s election.
“It’s just a neverending nightmare,” one minister said, on the condition of anonymity.
On Monday Perrottet conceded ministers had raised concerns with him about the controversy, but said he would not act until he receives findings from an independent report by the former public service commissioner Graeme Head.
“I’m not going to go into the ins and outs of discussions in relation to my engagement [with] my colleagues,” he said. “This is a difficult situation for the government.”
Ministers are privately aghast that Perrottet has not asked Ayres to stand aside until Head’s report is handed back.
On Monday, Ayres, the trade minister and deputy Liberal party leader, indicated he would not leave voluntarily.
“I’ve not done anything wrong, there is no need for me to stand aside,” Ayres said.
Documents obtained through parliament show Cole outperformed Barilaro in a series of categories of diagnostic testing undertaken by the recruitment firm hired to fill the position, including “delivers results”, “demonstrates accountability” and “acts with integrity”.
Cole scored the highest possible rating in nine of the 16 criteria measured by the firm, while Barilaro only received that mark in two categories – knowledge of NSW’s trade and investment policies and “representational, communication skills”.
By 25 March, after interviews with candidates for the position, Cole had emerged as the most suitable for the job.
A selection panel report noted she “exceeds” requirements in all four categories and recommended her for the job.
The document said while Barilaro “did have some of the relevant capabilities and experience for the role” he had “not worked internationally” in an equivalent role.
“His lack of business development networks would mean that he would have a considerable learning curve in the role,” the panel report said.
That month Cole met with Ayres for what the minister described on Monday as a “fairly standard” meeting. He insisted he “did not express a view” about her to the chief executive of Investment NSW, Amy Brown.
“We didn’t discuss anything through the lens of performance; it was merely an exchange of pleasantries to say, you know, thank you for organising it, and then allowing the CEO of Investment NSW to go away and [make a decision],” he said.
Brown wrote to the head of the recruitment firm on 26 March to thank her for “preparing a draft selection report” that placed Cole above Barilaro.
But, she said, she had “sourced a couple of informal referees for the candidates, which I’ll share with the group as they’re likely to change things”.
By 15 June, Barilaro had replaced Cole as the top-ranked candidate. The panel report had been edited to state that while Barilaro “would have a learning curve on doing business in the US, he had a strong track record of building teams as well as operating in a dynamic environment and had deep understanding of the NSW Trade and Investment environment”.
A comment was also included that Australia’s ambassador to the US, Arthur Sinodinos, a former federal Coalition senator, had provided a reference and “concluded that John had the right motivation, capabilities and experience for the role”.
Asked why Cole had been replaced by Barilaro as the preferred candidate, Ayres said Brown had made the decision because she “did not believe” the report from the recruitment firm conducting the search was accurate.
“I understand that she emailed almost instantaneously to inform [the recruitment company] she did not believe that was an accurate representation and asked for that to be adjusted,” Ayres said on Monday.
“That’s a decision for her; she made that call.”
Brown – who, through a spokesperson for her agency, declined to comment – is set to appear at a public hearing on Wednesday. It is the second time she has been asked to appear before a parliamentary inquiry into the appointment.
On Monday Labor’s shadow treasurer, Daniel Mookhey, said the committee would seek to determine whether the public service had been pressured to appoint Barilaro to the job.
“It’s unheard of that you would change a selection panel report,” he said.
Barilaro declined to respond. He has withdrawn from the position, citing the intense media attention his appointment had garnered, but has said he “always maintained that I followed the process”.
