John Barilaro, a former deputy premier of NSW, said he wished he had “never applied” to a lucrative $500,000 position in New York.
“If I had known then what I know now, I would have never applied.” I wouldn’t have entered that s**t show if I known then what I know now, he remarked.
The trauma I have endured over the last six to seven weeks, according to Mr. Barilaro, is severe.
Mr. Barilaro said in his opening speech that the upper house probe is “an inquiry to cleanse my character.”
He said that despite being a former member of parliament, he still had a basic right to be presumed innocent.
In the public service hiring process, when I was selected as the preferred candidate by an impartial panel based solely on my qualifications, he added, “I dispute any claims that I sought out any preferential treatment.”
Mr. Barilaro said that the affair, which also included three successful female executives, had caused him to undergo “what can only be defined as a personal hell, unfair and unjust.”
Before Mr. Barilaro received the prestigious trade post in New York, a senior public servant had been originally offered it.
He revealed before the panel on Monday that he first got interested in the New York position in November, after he had made his intention to leave the house known but before he actually departed.
Mr. Barilaro said that in late November, he casually discussed his interest in the role to NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet.
On one of those instances when he checked in on me, I mentioned it and said I’d be interested. Other than “go for it,” he had nothing more to say.
Mr. Barilaro said that at the time, he was unaware that the New York position was open. I just indicated the potential and notion of a trading function.
The incident surrounding the selection of Mr Barilaro to a New York trade job pulled in three high-flying female executives and damaged a relationship between two of them.
The public servant in charge of recruiting for the role, Investment NSW executive Amy Brown, told a parliamentary inquiry looking into the recruitment process on that the experience had been a ‘confusing’ and ‘disheartening’ one.
Kimberley Cole, a very successful entrepreneur, and Jenny West, a former executive at NSW Investment and a friend of Ms. Brown’s, have both shown interest in participating in the political drama.
Even though Ms West got a text from Ms Brown confirming she had a job before having it taken away in 2021, replete with champagne and Statue of Liberty emojis, Ms West and Ms Brown still lost out to former NSW deputy premier Mr. Barilaro for the New York position.
Ms. Cole was the favoured candidate following interviews when the position was re-advertised this year, but she fell short of Stuart Ayres’ expectations after only having 12 minutes to speak with him over video connection.
The position was finally filled by Mr. Barilaro, who signed a contract in June but resigned this month in response to criticism.
The NSW Liberal-National Coalition government has endured two months of terrible press as a result of the now-abandoned Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner to the Americas position, which has already resulted in the resignation of one minister.
After a draught investigation of the incident revealed Mr. Ayres may have violated the ministerial code of conduct, the deputy leader of the Liberal Party, Stuart Ayres, resigned last Wednesday.
Ayres’ desire to retire “follows a briefing I got from the Department of Premier and Cabinet secretary yesterday afternoon,” NSW Premier Dominic Perrottet said last week at a drawn-out news conference.
I then spoke with Mr. Ayres about the matters brought up in that briefing, according to Mr. Perrottet.
Ayres’ compliance with the ministerial code of conduct was a worry highlighted by the draught report, he said.
When I brought up these issues with Mr. Ayres, he offered to resign from the cabinet and from his position as deputy leader of the Parliamentary Liberal Party, according to Mr. Perrottet.
“An inquiry will now be conducted to see whether Mr. Ayres has violated the ministerial code of conduct,” the statement said.
Using the phrase “quite simply, I based my decision-making on the facts that I got,” the Premier gave the impression that Mr. Ayres had no alternative but to resign.
In only four days, Mr. Ayres was the second minister from NSW to die.
Eleni Petinos, the NSW Fair Trading Minister, was fired by Mr. Perrottet due to claims of bullying.
Ms. Petinos was accused of labelling a member of staff as “ret**ded” and “dumb,” which she vehemently disputed.
The NSW Independent Commission Against Corruption also discovered former minister John Sidoti participated in “severe corrupt conduct” with family-owned properties in a terrible couple of months for the Liberal-National Coalition.
Gareth Ward, a Kiama MP, also left the cabinet and switched to the opposition benches as a result of a police probe into him.
In March, Ward was accused of sexually abusing a male and a 17-year-old child, according to the charges.
The government is becoming embroiled in a controversy over the hiring of Mr. Barilaro, a former NSW deputy premier and Nationals leader, for a trade position in the US early this year.
Late last month, after being accosted outside a pub on Sydney’s northern beaches, Mr. Barilaro and his new girlfriend were seen on video lunging at the film crews as a hint that the stress of the situation may have been getting to him.
He was challenged on a night out and got into a fight with two cameramen; authorities are now looking into the highly public altercation.