Inquiry into Barilaro trade role sends transcript to ICAC

The NSW upper house has sent a transcript of its inquiry into how former deputy premier John Barilaro secured a plum $500,000-a-year trade role to the corruption watchdog.

The Independent Commission Against Corruption is already considering whether to investigate the circumstances in which Barilaro was appointed to the lucrative US post after he quit politics.

Former public servant Jenny West at the hearing on Monday.Credit: Nick Moir

Chair of the inquiry, Greens MP Cate Faehrmann, said the transcript of evidence from the former senior public servant Jenny West on Monday would also be sent to the ICAC for its consideration.

West, a former deputy secretary at government agency Investment NSW, told the inquiry on Monday that she was offered the New York-based senior trade and investment commissioner role on August 12 last year, before the offer was withdrawn in October.

She said Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown, who was in charge of the appointment process, told her on October 14 that she would not be given the $500,000-a-year job and it would instead “be a present for someone”.

Barilaro was selected as the new trade commissioner to the Americas six months later after a second recruitment search was started. He insists due process was followed.

Faehrmann said West’s evidence was incredibly concerning, particularly her details around why the role would be awarded to someone else.

“The evidence that the Public Accountability Committee heard from Ms Jenny West, former deputy secretary of Investment NSW, about the circumstances and reasons why she did not get the senior trade and investment commissioner to the Americas role was nothing short of explosive,” she said.

“The committee was particularly concerned at Ms West’s evidence that the role was being given as a ‘present’ to someone else. The public demands that public service roles, funded by the taxpayer dollar, be recruited with the highest level of integrity.

“It is clear that this has not been the case in this situation.”

Another hearing of the inquiry has been scheduled for next Tuesday, with invitations sent to the General Counsel of the Department of Enterprise, Trade and Investment and two former staffers of Barilaro.

In her first public comments about the saga, West outlined to the inquiry the extensive interview process she undertook to secure the trade post.

She said Brown congratulated her on securing the role in an August 12 text message that included emojis of the Statue of Liberty and a champagne bottle.

According to her evidence, handwritten file notes that she wrote last year, detail her recollection of conversations with Brown in September, when she was first informed the job offer was being rescinded.

One contemporaneous note, dated September 17, recounted Brown explaining that West’s contract could not progress “despite me being verbally offered the state trade investment commissioner [STIC] Americas role [and] the premier signing off the job/brief”.

The briefing note, signed by then-premier Gladys Berejiklian, says: “Jenny West has been identified as the successful candidate for the STIC Americas role. The deputy premier and the treasurer will also be notified of Ms West’s selection.”

Perrottet told parliament in June that Barilaro was appointed after “the first recruitment process did not identify a suitable candidate”.

The premier doubled down on his statement on Tuesday, insisting that what he told parliament was “based on the advice obviously from the department”.

“That is the advice that I have still received and nothing has changed,” Perrottet said.

He said claims by West that she was told the job was going to be a “present for someone” were concerning. “There is absolutely no place for gifts of government jobs whether they are statutory appointments or whether they are government sector,” Perrottet said.

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