Barilaro quits $500,00-a-year US trade commissioner post

Former deputy premier John Barilaro has pulled out of his plum role as US trade commissioner.

John Barilaro says ‘my appointment will continue to be a distraction and not allow this important role to achieve what it was designed to do’. Picture Gaye Gerard

Former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro has succumbed to pressure and stepped down from a $500,000-a-year state government appointment as a senior trade commissioner based in New York.

Mr Barilaro confirmed on Thursday he would not accept the position, saying it was untenable to take up the role as it continued to be a distraction for the NSW government.

The government led by NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet has been internally divided over the appointment made a fortnight ago without cabinet approval.

It faced two potentially damaging inquiries – a departmental review ordered by Mr Perrottet and a parliamentary investi­gation by the upper house public accountability committee – following allegations of irregularities surrounding his selection just months after he quit parliament.

Mr Barilaro’s withdrawal from the post, which he was due to start in New York on July 12, came a day after it was revealed he intervened last September as a minister in the appointment of another candidate who had been told verbally she had scored the New York job.

Amy Brown, the head of Investment NSW and then the “final decision-maker”, was told by a senior adviser to Mr Barilaro, then deputy premier and trade minister, that Ms Brown was to “unwind” the selection process as a public service position because it was to become a ministerial ­appointment.

Ms Brown then told the anointed candidate, her deputy Jenny West, on October 1 that the job offer had been rescinded.

Three days later, on October 4, Mr Barilaro resigned from his ministerial position. He formally quit parliament on December 30.

Before the New York position was readvertised in late December as a public service post, not a ministerial appointment, Mr ­Barilaro let his ministerial successor, Stuart Ayres, know that he was interested in applying for the job.

After Ms Brown received Mr Barilaro’s application at Investment NSW, she let Mr Ayres know he had applied.

Ms Brown told the upper house inquiry on Wednesday he was the best candidate among applicants after a “global” recruitment process, but she had concerns when he was trade minister that he might interfere with the selection process.

The trade job was offered to Mr Barilaro in May, and confirmed publicly by the government in a statement issued at 4pm on June 17 by Mr Ayres amid a flood of other government spending announcements days ahead of the state budget.

Mr Barilaro said in a statement on Thursday that he had decided not to take up the New York appointment, which was one of six trade commissioner positions he had created as minister in November 2020 that were to be filled over time as senior public service SES band 3 ­positions.

The New York job, which Mr Barilaro was ultimately given, came with a $487,000-a-year salary, 10.5 per cent or $51,135-a-year superannuation, a $16,000 annual cost-of-living allowance and other conditions.

The office that awaited Mr Barilaro in the Australian consulate in New York has been refitted at a cost of $905,000.

Mr Barilaro issued his statement some hours after NSW Transport Minister David Elliott said his former colleague should not take up the job.

“It is clear my taking up this role is now not tenable with the amount of media attention this appointment has gained,” Mr Barilaro said. “I believe my appointment will continue to be a distraction and not allow this important role to achieve what it was designed to do.

“I stress I have always maintained that I followed the process and look forward to the results of the review.”

Speaking earlier on Sky News, Mr Elliott said it was his “very, very strong view” that Mr Barilaro should not be going to New York in the role of senior trade commissioner and he expected Mr Barilaro to do the “honourable thing”.

The upper house inquiry is due to hear evidence next Wednesday from Ms West, who was reportedly “very upset” when she was denied the job last year and sent a detailed complaint to Mr Perrottet’s department chief, Michael Coutts-Trotter.

A spokeswoman for Mr Perrottet said Mr Barilaro’s decision was a matter for Investment NSW and him, not Mr Perrottet.