Perrottet can’t escape scandals with Ayres under fire amid Barilaro debacle
As Premier Dominic Perrottet has made his way through Asian for a trade mission tirp, his government has been plagued by scandals that just won’t go away, writes James O’Doherty.
Opinion
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When a politician turns on the media to claim a line of questioning is unfair, it is the sign of a crisis that is starting to bite.
And when a minister starts twisting themselves in knots to explain away damning documents, they never escape a scandal unscathed.
That’s the point Premier Dominic Perrottet and Trade Minister Stuart Ayres have now reached, on the very week of a high-profile trade mission that should have been about selling NSW to the world.
No matter how successful Perrottet thinks he has been so far on his visit to Japan and Korea, his mission has been spectacularly derailed by continued questions about Ayres’s involvement in former deputy premier John Barilaro’s appointment to a plum New York trade role.
Perrottet’s troubled trade trip threatens to descend into high farce when Ayres joins the travelling roadshow for the last leg in India.
The under-fire minister will need to explain why he told parliament that no “suitable candidates” had been found for the New York trade job, despite last year signing a briefing note that public servant Jenny West had been “successful” after a “full” recruitment process.
Labor has accused Ayres of misleading the house – a serious sin for any parliamentarian, let alone a minister.
Ayres’s explanation that the briefing note “does not represent the end of the recruitment process” does not pass muster. West had already been verbally offered the role and Ayres had signed a document that said she was going to be appointed.
Ayres needs to outline why West went from “successful” to out of a job in months.
Senior Liberals increasingly fear Ayres will be criticised in an independent review being conducted by former public service commissioner Graeme Head.
If that happens, the Premier has no choice but to punish his minister. Other Liberals believe Investment NSW boss Amy Brown could be in the gun, but question whether sacrificing her would be enough to hose down the scandal.
The Premier was supposed to be touring Asia this week to sell NSW to the world and attract more investment.
Internally, it has been seen as great success. The state’s plans for green hydrogen and critical mineral extraction, in particular, have attracted great interest. But there is clearly frustration that any success is being overshadowed by the Barilaro fiasco back home.
And that means it is impossible to call this trip a success.
The entire point of the trade mission was to spruik the trade commissioner roles to which Barilaro was appointed before withdrawing.
While trying to ignore the elephant in the room, the Premier maintains finding good people for those jobs is crucial to the future of NSW.
Previous overseas trips, he told me in Seoul this week, showed him our state was doing “poorly”. On one trip to New York and California, when Perrottet was treasurer, one of the state’s trade officials apparently didn’t even know who Perrottet was.
“The person introduced himself to me. He didn’t know that I was the Treasurer,” Perrottet told me.
“He’d organised very few trips, very few meetings to help drive investment and asked us for our list of contacts. That’s not acceptable,” Perrottet said.
On paper, Barilaro is the kind of person the Premier envisaged to represent our trade interests overseas.
“There are two skill sets, in my view, that are best placed for these roles: a commercial background (and) political background,” Perrottet says.
But the minister now responsible, Stuart Ayres, has done little to dispel the perception that the government gave a job to a mate after someone else has already got the gig.
When Perrottet landed in Japan on Thursday morning, his crisp diplomatic passport was stamped for the first time.
It might be retired sooner rather than later. With an election looming in March next year, Perrottet’s first overseas mission as Premier may also be his last.
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