Ayres admits one regret on Barilaro job

Jack Gramenz and Maureen Dettre | August 2, 2022

Under-fire NSW trade minister Stuart Ayres says he should have told his former colleague John Barilaro not to apply for a US job that has engulfed the government in crisis.

Premier Dominic Perrottet is under mounting pressure to sack the deputy Liberal Party leader amid the seven-week scandal over how Mr Barilaro landed the $500,000-a-year trade role he created when he was a minister.

Documents released to a parliamentary committee probing the controversial appointment have raised serious questions over the recruitment process.

Mr Ayres insists the appointment was made by the public service but conceded on Tuesday he should have anticipated the political damage Mr Barilaro’s appointment would create for the government.

“I should have told him that even though he’s a private citizen, and he can apply for the role and he should be treated equally and respectfully, it was probably not in his best interest or the state’s best interests,” Mr Ayres told reporters.

“Given what Mr Barilaro has been through, he too would seriously question whether applying for this job was in his best interests.”

Mr Ayres said he felt some sympathy for his former colleague.

“But he’s made a decision to not pursue the role, that’s his private decision,” he said.

Mr Barilaro walked away from the role less than two weeks after his appointment was announced in June, saying it had become untenable.

Several coalition ministers have declined to publicly support Mr Ayres, who on Tuesday admitted one colleague had asked him to quit, although the premier had not.

Mr Perrottet is waiting until a Department of Premier and Cabinet review into the former deputy premier’s appointment delivers its findings before taking action.

Mr Ayres maintains he’s done nothing wrong but agrees his position will be untenable if the review disagreed.

He denied misleading parliament in June when he said the first recruitment round for the US trade envoy job had failed to identify a successful candidate, despite him signing a briefing note saying senior public servant Jenny West had been selected.

Ms West said she was verbally offered the job but Mr Ayres maintains she was never issued a contract.

He also denied asking Investment NSW to add Mr Barilaro’s name to a shortlist of candidates being considered by the selection panel.

One of the documents revealed Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown noted in February that Mr Ayres wanted to add another name – which was redacted from the publicly released version – to the shortlist, but the minister has guaranteed it wasn’t Mr Barilaro.

Mr Ayres also said he wasn’t encouraging Mr Barilaro to apply when he sent him a copy of the job advertisement, which he did not send to anyone else.

“I was merely informing him the ad had been published,” Mr Ayres said.

Labor says the latest files – which indicate Mr Barilaro was not initially considered the best candidate before his assessment was upgraded and those of his main rivals downgraded – put pressure on Mr Ayres to explain himself.

The opposition previously said the government’s “fingerprints” were all over the appointment and accused it of misleading parliament over the affair.

More documents relating to the issue will be released on Tuesday, Labor says.

On Wednesday, Ms Brown will give evidence to the upper house inquiry for a second time, while Mr Barilaro will testify next week.