NSW Transport Minister David Elliott says former deputy premier John Barilaro should withdraw from a plum new taxpayer-funded job in New York.
Mr Barilaro has been appointed as the state’s Trade Commissioner for the Americas, a role that comes with a salary package of $500,000.
Premier Dominic Perrottet has called an independent inquiry into the appointment, and a separate parliamentary inquiry examining the selection process sat yesterday for the first time.
Mr Elliott told Sky News today that Mr Barilaro — his former long-time Coalition colleague — shouldn't take up the role.
"I'd expect him to withdraw and do the honourable thing because quite clearly when you become the story over an appointment then the appointment might not be in the best interests of the people of NSW," he said.
Education Minister Sarah Mitchell told ABC News Breakfast this morning she believed due process had been followed for the appointment.
"The head of Trade and Investment [Amy Brown] yesterday made it clear that it was a public sector appointment, it wasn’t a political appointment," she said.
"Mr Barilaro has applied for the job as a private citizen, he’s been given that position through an independent process and that’s certainly what the evidence that I’ve seen so far indicates."
Tourism Minister Stuart Ayres has denied the Premier or state cabinet had a hand in Mr Barilaro's appointment.
Mr Ayres said he informed Mr Perrottet that Mr Barilaro was applying for the role, and notified state cabinet and the NSW parliament when the former deputy premier emerged as the preferred candidate.
But he maintained the entire recruitment process was handled by the public sector, at arms length from government.
"I indicated to him [Mr Perrottet] that he had applied," Mr Ayres told a press conference.
"We didn't discuss it after that point until I informed him [Mr Perrottet] on the 30th of April that he [Mr Barilaro] was the preferred applicant after the conclusion of that recruitment process.
"I think at the point he become the preferred candidate, I informed the Premier and the Deputy Premier.
"I advised the parliament of this last week that he was the preferred candidate – I think that that's just a pretty standard course of action for any minister to inform the Premier or the leadership team of something I thought would be relevant to them.
"That doesn't indicate at any stage that they were involved in the recruitment process."
Yesterday, Investment NSW CEO Amy Brown gave evidence to the parliamentary inquiry examining Mr Barilaro's appointment.
She told the inquiry an adviser in Mr Barilaro's office had asked if the recruitment process for several global trade roles, including the job in New York, could be changed so that they were direct ministerial appointments.
She also gave evidence that a candidate named Jenny West had been verbally offered the New York position, before a change in government policy meant the process was halted.
On Saturday, Premier Dominic Perrottet announced his own inquiry into the awarding of the job, to be lead by former NSW public service commissioner Graeme Head.
Mr Head will probe the hiring process including the mechanisms in place for managing "actual and perceived conflicts of interest".
