Jenny West told John Barilaro trade posting would be ‘a present for someone’

The bureaucrat originally offered the NSW government’s plum New York City trade posting was told the role would be a gift someone else.

Former Investment NSW deputy secretary Jenny West gives evidence before a parliamentary committee on Monday. Picture: NCA NewsWire / Nikki Short

The bureaucrat originally offered the NSW government’s plum New York City trade posting – a position eventually handed to former NSW deputy premier John Barilaro – was told the role would be “a present for someone”.

During a NSW parliamentary inquiry into Mr Barilaro’s appointment to the $500,000-a-year position, Jenny West, a former deputy secretary with Investment NSW, said she was “horrified” after learning the former Nationals leader made a submission to cabinet to gain authority for the state’s trade posting appointments.

After being encouraged to apply for the NY posting by Investment NSW chief executive Amy Brown and undertaking a seven-stage application process, Ms West said she was verbally offered the role on August 12 after her appointment was signed off by the then premier, Gladys Berejiklian.

But after a request for an in-person meeting on October 15, Ms Brown told Ms West her appointment as the NSW trade and investment commissioner to the Americas had been rescinded after the Coalition said the state’s trade commissioner roles would become “political appointments”.

“Ms Brown said that the position, and this is a quote, ‘will be a present for someone.’,” Ms West told the parliamentary committee during her opening statement, adding she considered the choice of the word “present” as “unusual”.

“She added and I again quote: ‘You are an extraordinary performer and I am upset that this has happened’.”

Alluding to a file note taken after a “walking meeting” with Ms Brown along Balmoral Beach on September 17, Ms West said her superior had warned her a separate submission made by Mr Barilaro to cabinet seeking to gain authority over appointments for the trade positions was preventing her contract offer from progressing.

In her note, Ms West lamented she had delivered on a number of projects during her time at Investment NSW “just to get my legs taken from underneath me”.

“How could he just change some things like that to put his mates in roles to help with the election?,” Ms West asked Ms Brown during their meeting.

After being dumped from the NY trade posting, Ms West said she was “shocked” to discover her position as deputy secretary within Investment NSW had also been “reallocated”, with Ms Brown telling her the role may no longer exist moving forward.

On November 19, Ms West received a letter terminating her employment without cause and compensation. Shortly afterwards a “very similar” position was advertised by Investment NSW.

The Australian revealed last week Ms Brown had outlined a list of grievances about Ms West’s performance as deputy secretary. But Ms West said that at no point during her seven-stage application process were concerns about her experience raised by the NSW government.