Barilaro scuffle: ‘I’m being harassed’

| July 25, 2022

John Barilaro says he was being harassed when a scuffle broke out with a television cameraman on a Sydney street, and maintains he wants to give evidence to a parliamentary committee probing how he scored a trade job in New York.

The Saturday night stoush prompted the former deputy premier to speak publicly for the first time since he became embroiled in controversy over his appointment to the $500,000 taxpayer-funded trade job, which he has since relinquished.

“I’m calling on the Labor Party to stop playing games in the upper house. Call me to the inquiry. Because it’s you causing this intrusion and harassment,” he told Sydney radio 2GB on Monday.

The NSW upper house has been recalled to sit on Friday in an effort to obtain documents for an inquiry into the appointment.

The government had been given three weeks to provide all the relevant documents, but had failed to do so.

Opposition leader Chris Minns said the missing documents are “crucial to getting to the bottom of how (Mr Barilaro) was picked to represent the interests of NSW in New York”.

“Once it’s provided, of course Labor members on that upper house committee will expedite a hearing to hear from Mr Barilaro,” he told reporters.

“The hearing can’t take place until the information has been provided because it’s the basis of questioning for Mr Barilaro.”

Mr Minns says if the documents had been provided three weeks ago, then the former MP could have given evidence by now, “but someone’s dragging their feet”.

“Let’s wrap this up and find out what happened.”

Greens MP and chair of the Public Accountability Committee Cate Faehrmann says “it’s highly suspicious” the requested documents about the appointment had been withheld.

The committee has already triggered Standing Order 52 to compel the government to hand over the documents.

Premier Dominic Perrottet, whose trade trip to Asia has been dogged by the controversy, says a sizeable tranche of documents will be produced to the committee by the end of Monday.

“The majority of those documents will be produced by the end of the day and any outstanding documents will be produced by the end of the week,” Mr Perrottet said.

Meanwhile, vision emerged online on Monday of the former Nationals leader briefly clashing with a cameraman outside a Manly bar around 7.30pm on Saturday.

The footage shows the pair struggling as they grab and push one another while the cameraman tries to film Mr Barilaro, who then walks away.

Police are now investigating.

Mr Barilaro said he was “confronted in the dark outside of a bar” during a night out with friends.

“I’m being intruded on and harassed,” he said.

“To come out and have a camera shoved in your face. I’m a private citizen.

“All I did was push a camera out of my way. I did not manhandle an individual.”

Mr Perrottet said Mr Barilaro’s privacy should be respected.

“There’s no place for harassment, particularly for people who are private citizens,” he told reporters in the South Korean capital of Seoul.

“It’s very different if you’re in public life but if you’re a private citizen, his privacy should be respected.”