A senior business figure who sat on the selection panel that appointed John Barilaro to a prestigious US trade role said other candidates had more international experience and that he felt “bypassed” in the process, as an inquiry shifts its focus to a separate UK trade post.

Government adviser Warwick Smith and headhunter Marianne Broadbent appeared before an ongoing upper house probe into Mr Barilaro’s appointment to a New York trade position. The inquiry also spent considerable time on Thursday questioning the appointment process behind the state’s agent-general to the UK.