John Barilaro withdraws from New York trade role due to ‘media attention’
John Barilaro has stood down from a $500,000-a-year New York trade job to which he was controversially appointed.
A day after the first sitting of an upper house inquiry into the appointment, Barilaro announced late on Thursday that he was withdrawing from the job, saying his position had become untenable after intense media scrutiny.
“I’m withdrawing from the position of STIC [senior trade and investment commissioner] for the Americas,” he said in a statement.
“It is clear that my taking up this role is now not tenable with the amount of media attention this appointment has gained. I believe my appointment will continue to be a distraction and not allow this important role to achieve what it was designed to do, and thus my decision.
“I have always maintained that I followed the process and look forward to the results of the review.”
Barilaro’s appointment has created headlines since it was announced a fortnight ago, prompting two separate inquiries into how it occurred.
In a statement after the announcement, the chief executive of Investment NSW, Amy Brown, said Barilaro had “notified me that he is withdrawing from the role of Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Americas, effective immediately”.
“I request that his privacy be respected at this time,” Brown said.
“Investment NSW is assisting the Department of Premier and Cabinet and NSW Legislative Council Inquiry in reviews of the Senior Trade and Investment Commissioner Americas recruitment process, and as such it is not appropriate to make any further comment.”
The opposition leader, Chris Minns, released a statement saying that “serious concerns” remained about the process behind the appointment.
“It’s telling that the premier didn’t sack John Barilaro, he walked,” Minns said.
“Mr Barilaro should never have been appointed to this job in the first place.
“Serious concerns remain about how he got the job and the parliamentary inquiry will continue to pursue those.”
The Guardian revealed last week that an offer had been made to another candidate for the role, but was rescinded soon after.
On Thursday morning, the NSW transport minister, David Elliott, had broken ranks and called for Barilaro to “do the honourable thing” and quit of his own accord.
“My very, very strong view is that he shouldn’t be going to New York and I’m pretty sure that that’s the view of the majority of people in this state,” Elliott said.
Shortly afterwards the trade minister, Stuart Ayres, who took over the portfolio after Barilaro announced his resignation from parliament in October 2021, told media he “had some concerns” when the former deputy premier contacted him in December to ask about the trade job.
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“He contacted me via text message late last year, indicating that he was interested in it,” Ayres said, in his first comments on the saga outside parliament since Barilaro was announced in the job a fortnight ago.
“I made it very clear to him that we were continuing with the existing process [and] I informed him that they would be publicly advertised and he, like any other private citizen, will be able to apply.”
Asked about Elliott’s comments, Ayres, who oversees the department that made the appointment, Investment NSW, gave the clearest signal yet that the saga had become an unwelcome headache for the government.
“That is an option for John Barilaro to consider,” Ayres said. “Unfortunately, I do not have the capacity to direct Amy Brown as the employer of this role on what to do.
“She has to come to that conclusion herself, or John can make the decision that he no longer wants to do the job that he’s been selected for.”
On Wednesday Brown told the inquiry that another candidate – Jenny West, a businesswoman and former public servant – was offered the role in August, but that the offer was rescinded after she received instructions to make the trade commissioner jobs ministerial appointments.
She was informed of that “government decision” by Barilaro’s office. Only a few days later Barilaro announced his resignation and Ayres took over the portfolio.
Ayres then decided to keep the jobs “at arm’s length from politicians” by allowing for them to remain as public service appointments.
The inquiry on Wednesday heard that prior to the “government decision” to make the roles ministerial appointments, Brown had been asked by staff in Barilaro’s office for advice on how that could be done.
She was told during the same meeting that the deputy premier “wanted to know”.