John Barilaro told chief of staff he would create New York trade role for himself: parliament

The former chief of staff to former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro has provided explosive written evidence to parliament claiming his ex-boss told him in 2019 he would create a position in New York to ensure he had a job to go to after he left politics.

Barilaro has rejected the claims.

Long-time experienced political adviser Mark Connell wrote to the parliamentary inquiry investigating Barilaro’s appointment as US trade commissioner, disclosing a conversation in which he claimed Barilaro said he would engineer a position for himself in the US.

Former deputy premier John Barilaro.Credit: Dominic Lorrimer

The alleged conversation took place about April 2019, after Barilaro purportedly returned from a meeting with then-treasurer Dominic Perrottet and then-industry minister Stuart Ayres to discuss the restoration of the agent general position in the UK.

“After this meeting, Mr Barilaro came directly to my office. He said, ‘I’ve just come from a meeting with Dom and Stuart regarding trade and we’re going to bring back the Agent General in London as well as a bunch of other postings around the world,’ ” Connell’s statement, now tabled in parliament, said.

“He then stated, ‘This is it; this is the job for when I get the f--- out of this place’. I responded to Mr Barilaro and stated, ‘but John, the Agent General role will be filled well before you retire from this place’.”

Mark Connell (centre) behind John Barilaro and then-NSW environment minister Matt Kean in June 2020.Credit: Janie Barrett

Connell claimed Barilaro then told him: “I don’t want to go to London, f--- that, I’m off to New York ... I’ll get them to put one in New York, that’s where I’m off too [sic].

“The conversation in relation to this matter then ended,” the statement said.

Barilaro on Wednesday rejected Connell’s claims in a statement released soon after the submission became public.

“The conversation he has recalled is fictitious, false and only serves as a reminder as to why we had to part ways,” Barilaro said.

“If this inquiry is genuine in its intent to understand the process and the truth by which I was appointed, then surely I would be called up to provide this detail immediately.

“The continued drip feed of select information from the inquiry into the public domain goes against all procedural fairness.”

Connell is a long-time Liberal staffer and a former deputy state director of the NSW Liberal party. He previously worked for former NSW premier John Fahey, and returned as an adviser on energy policy in Treasurer Matt Kean’s office after leaving Barilaro’s office.

Now a private consultant, Connell was recently called on to help the federal Liberal party in its campaign to hold on to must-win seats in the recent election.

In a statement, Premier Dominic Perrottet said he had numerous discussions with Barilaro and Ayres in 2019 regarding the establishment of Global NSW.

“At no point in any of those discussions was it ever raised that the former deputy premier may want to hold a position as a trade commissioner,” he said.

Minister for Enterprise, Investment and Trade Stuart Ayres said Barilaro did not indicate an interest in a trade commissioner position at any stage of the Global NSW strategy development.

“I reject in the strongest possible terms any suggesting or inference that the recruitment for the [state trade and investment commissioner] Americas role was orchestrated to deliver the role to Mr Barilaro,” he said, adding that the suggestion was “incredibly offensive”.

Barilaro’s controversial appointment to the $500,000-a-year job last month triggered two separate inquiries and prompted fierce backlash from his former colleagues. He has since withdrawn from the role.

Connell served as Barilaro’s chief of staff from April 2017 to December 2019. He declined an invitation to give evidence in a public hearing of the parliamentary inquiry, providing the written statement instead.

In the three-page statement marked “confidential”, which the inquiry decided to make public, Connell said his employment ended when it was mutually agreed “that I relinquish my position due to Mr Barilaro ceasing to take my advice and seeking outside counsel”.

Connell wrote that he believed in following the due processes of good governance and felt the alleged incident was of interest or value to the parliamentary inquiry.

“I did not have any involvement, knowledge, or discussions with any persons, in relation to this particular matter, prior to, or proceeding this “isolated” discussion with Mr Barilaro,” he said.

Leader of the opposition in the upper house Penny Sharpe said the inquiry was doing the job it was set up to do.

“It is examining all the information that comes before it seriously and judiciously. If Mr Barilaro wants to come before the committee he is more than welcome to.”

The claims will further escalate the political fall-out over the trade commissioner saga, coinciding with Perrottet’s first trade mission on Wednesday, visiting South Korea, India and Japan, where he will officially open the trade commissioner’s office in Tokyo.

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