A senior aide to John Barilaro claims that the former deputy premier of New South Wales ordered him to swiftly transform a contentious US trade position into a ministry appointment.
Later, Mr. Barilaro was chosen for the $500,000-per-year New York job, which is now the focus of a NSW parliamentary investigation.
Due to criticism of the nomination, the former Nationals leader resigned from the position last month.
From 2019 to 2021, Joseph Brayford served as a senior policy adviser in Mr. Barilaro’s office. On Tuesday, he testified in private before the upper house committee.
According to a transcript that was released on Thursday, Mr. Brayford said that he received a text message about the plum trade post in August from Mr. Barilaro.
He claimed that in order to “seek a cabinet submission changing the commissioner jobs to ministerial appointments,” his supervisor had instructed him to get in touch with Investment NSW director Amy Brown “ASAP.”
He claimed that the request was the first text message he had gotten from his boss in the two and a half years he had worked for Mr. Barilaro, requesting him to put together an urgent cabinet proposal.
‘Nothing really surprised me with John,’ Mr Brayford told the committee.
He added Mr Barilaro then told him he also wanted the London and Tokyo trade roles to be changed to ministerial appointments.
Dominic Perrottet, a premier, in Japan
A proposal to alter the selection process for trade commissioners was presented to cabinet in late September, just before Mr. Barilaro announced in October that he would leave politics at the end of the year.
Speaking on his former employer, Mr. Brayford called him a “interesting guy” and claimed that he had never “worked with someone so hungry and so ambitious.”
Before being summoned to attend at the investigation, Mr. Barilaro stated he would not comment on the allegations. His testimony is not yet planned.
The former Monaro MP has already criticized the committee for not calling him, claiming that the public’s drip-feed of information violates procedural fairness.
Premier Dominic Perrottet, who arrived in Japan on Thursday to open the trade commission office in Tokyo, said he didn’t want to ‘give a running commentary’ on the inquiry.
‘There’s always public scrutiny and when concerns are raised they need to be addressed in a proper way,’ he told reporters.
‘It’s my job as premier to allow that independent process to be fulfilled.’
Prior to the cabinet decision to make the trade posts ministerial appointments, the inquiry was informed that top Investment NSW officer Jenny West had been informally offered the New York position.
Prior to Mr. Barilaro’s hiring, Ms. West was chosen for the position in August, but Mr. Brayford said to the committee that he was not aware of this.
The former chief of staff for Mr. Barilaro, Mark Connell, said before the committee that his former boss had his eye on the lucrative trade position more than three years ago and had intended to take it on when he left politics.
According to Mr. Connell, Mr. Barilaro informed him in April 2019 that the government wanted to bring back some foreign trade assignments and that he was “going to New York.”
In response to his former chief of staff’s allegation, Mr. Barilaro called the exchange “fictitious, fake.”
David Mookhey, a spokesperson for Labor’s finance committee, expressed anticipation for Mr. Barilaro to lead the probe and said it was “his right” to do so.
On Thursday, Mr. Mookhey told reporters, “We would urge John Barilaro to send in a formal response to the investigation, we have urged that he do so.”
The legitimacy of Mr. Barilaro’s appointment is also being examined by a separate Department of Premier and Cabinet study, which was started by Mr. Perrottet last month.