TO be more than fair to Premier Dominic Perrottet, the chain of events surrounding John Barilaro's ill-fated - and incredibly ill-advised - appointment as a senior trade commissioner to the Americas, based in New York on a salary package of about $500,000 a year, began when his predecessor, Gladys Berejiklian, was still heading the state.
But as finance minister since 2014 and treasurer since 2017, Mr Perrottet had been plugged into the highest levels of government for six years when he took the top job in October last year.
