Pressure builds on NSW Treasurer after revelations besieged icare paid for ministerial staff

It’s been revealed two of Dominic Perrottet’s ministerial staff were on the payroll of besieged insurance body icare.

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet. Picture: NCA NewsWire/Bianca De Marchi

NSW Treasurer Dominic Perrottet has lost his chief of staff to a growing icare scandal, following revelations that some ministerial staff were on the payroll of the ­besieged public insurer.

The ministerial staff members, including policy adviser Edward Yap and an administrative assistant, were on secondment from icare without the proper documentation due to an “administrative error”, Mr Perrottet said.

On Thursday night he accepted the resignation of Nigel Freitas, his chief of staff for four years, after being advised that the staff “working in my office on secondment from icare were not fully documented as required”.

Mr Yap joined Mr Perrottet’s office in 2015 for a six-month term, but later left to take up a contract as a strategy manager with icare. However, he was back in Mr Perrottet’s office in 2017.

“As per usual practice in ministerial offices, the handling of all staffing arrangements is formally delegated to the chief of staff, including employment contracts, hiring and firing,” Mr Perrottet said in a statement. “At all times, my understanding was that all staff arrangements in my office were in order, and I regret that they were not.”

The Berejiklian government has been under pressure over icare since The Sydney Morning Herald reported serious mismanagement at the agency last week.

Mr Perrottet has appointed retired NSW Supreme Court judge Robert McDougall to review icare, which earlier this week lost its chief executive John Nagle.

NSW Labor leader Jodi Mc­Kay said Mr Perrottet’s “decision-making was compromised by his policy adviser being paid by the agency he was responsible for”.

Labor has previously called for the government to sack the entire icare board over the scandal.