Private texts between top bureaucrats allege Perrottet was ‘comfortable’ with John Barilaro’s plum NY appointment
‘This isn’t great’ - Investment NSW boss Amy Brown expressed concern over fallout from John Barilaro’s appointment to New York, secret texts have revealed. See the messages here.
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Premier Dominic Perrottet and his Deputy Paul Toole were said to be “comfortable” with John Barilaro’s appointment to a plum New York trade role after he got the job, according to a text from Investment NSW boss Amy Brown
Secret documents released to parliament have also revealed an $80,000 review into the appointment could not even investigate dumped Minister Stuart Ayres’ potential involvement in the process.
The documents reveal former Public Service Commissioner Graeme Head was paid $80,000 for his review into the appointment.
He was given power to order documents from the public service, but Mr Ayres and his staff were out of reach.
The report was due back on August 5, but as of Monday it had not yet been provided to the government.
The information and eye-watering price tag has been revealed in the latest trove of secret documents connected to Mr Barilaro’s appointment.
The documents released to parliament show that Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown texted Mr Coutts-Trotter on May 6 in which she said Mr Perrottet and Deputy Premier Paul Toole were “comfortable” with Mr Barilaro’s appointment.
“FYI - I’ve been told that Premier and DP (Deputy Premier) are comfortable with the appointment of Barilaro as STIC to the Americas, and requested to get on with formalising the arrangements (which I’ll do),” the text said.
On May 23, public servant Kylie Bell texted Mr Barilaro to tell him he had been successful - referring to him as “DP” (Deputy Premier).
In a later exchange, former Trade Minister Stuart Ayres’ media adviser discusses the announcement with an Investment NSW staff member.
The latter asks if anyone had been any pushback on the announcement that Mr Barilaro was being appointed to the role.
Mr Ayres’s staffer replied: “A little bit but it has settled”.
The latest documents to come to light also show a concerned Amy Brown texting Mr Coutts-Trotter a link to a media article about Mr Barilaro’s appointment and saying “this isn’t great”.
Mr Coutts-Trotter then replied: “No, but utterly predictable”.
Ms Brown then replies: “We should talk through once I’ve pulled everything together. Technically it was my decision.”
Taxpayers will now foot the bill for another review, in addition to the ongoing parliamentary inquiry, which will flesh out Mr Ayres’s involvement in the saga.
Mr Barilaro has told parliament he applied to the $500,000 a year role in his capacity as a private citizen and denies any wrongdoing.
The documents show that Mr Head‘s review was due back to the government on August 5. As of Monday, it had not yet been delivered to the government.
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